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SKETCHES 



MEN OF MARK 



WRITTEN BY THE BEST TALENT OF TUE EAST. 



BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH STEEL rORTRAITS BY THE FINEST 
EXGKAVERS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



PUBLISHED BY SUBSORIPTION. 



(1000 BOOK AGEKTS WANTED.) 



NEW YORK AND HARTFORD PUBLISHING CO. 

41 PARK ROW, NEW YORK. 

LONDON: SAMPSON, LOWE, SON & UO. 

SAN FIIANCISCO: DEWING & CO. 






Kntercd according to Act of Congress, in the year 1811, 
THE NEW TOllK AND HAKTFOKD PDBLISHING CO 
In tho Oaicc of the Librarian of Congress at WashingK^.n 






PREFACE, 



Tuis volume is now offered to the public, containing bio- 
graphical sketches, and steel engravings, of many prominent 
Americans who are entitled to appreciative memoirs — states- 
men, lawyers, financiers, manufacturers, merchants, and in- 
ventors, who by their own unaided talents and efforts have 
risen from comparatively humble circumstances to some of 
the highest and most responsible places in this republic — 
men who were not nursed in the " lap of luxury ; " men 
who, in early life, had neither advantages in education nor 
pecuniary means ; but who, nevertheless, have become emi- 
nently distinguished for ability, industry, perseverance, and 
great attainments. Such men are really the bone and sinew 
of this great republic. 

In compiling this Biographical work, the editor 
and publishers claim no credit for performing their tasks, 
but have earnestly endeavored to do their best, and to make 
the work fully equal and even superior to what was prom- 
ised. Some of the first talent in the country has been 
employed on the engravings. Much labor has been in- 
volved in bringing it to completion. Such persons have 
been selected as examples, who seemed to illustrate some 
particular genius, or special ti-ait of character, worthy the 
imitation of our American youth. Hundreds of letters 



have been wi-ittcn to tbe su1)jects of sketches, and all infor- 
mation that could be obtained, has been sought for from 
reliable data. The sketches are plain descriptions of worthy 
" Progressive Men." The aim of the editor has been to 
give authentic facts and dates, rather than elegant diction 
()!• llcnveiy style. Some of the sketches have been prepared 
by some of our most popular writers. By the particular 
request of others, their names are not given. Possibly some 
subjects may not have been sufficiently estimated, and par- 
ticular traits and virtues made prominent. None can regret 
more sincerely than the writers any failure on their part to 
apj)reciate true merit, or to have omitted any noble deeds 
worthy of recording. 

Biographies of eminent self-made men ai-e instructive 
moral lessons for the young. It may stimulate them to 
exertion ; for all attainments that have been accomplished 
may be repeated. It kindles in the heart and mind lauda- 
ble ambition, a desire to excel in the march for fame and 
distinction in the groat and grand enterprises of the present 
day, which are so well illustrated by the peculiar freedom 
of our own American institutions. 

Steel engravings are the most pleasant and attractive 
features of a book ; and especially are they so when accom- 
panied by the memoirs of our friends. 

Renowned persons of the Eoman Commonwealth used 
to say " that whenever they beheld the images of their 
ancestors, they felt their minds incited to virtue." 

In the compilation of this work we have met with various 
delays and difficulties that could not be surmounted ; but 
have spared no oilbrt or pains to make the work creditable 



CONTENTS: 



8. F. B. Morso 1 

C. K. Garrieon 31 

M. O. Roberts 39 

H. B. Clafliu 43 

Gen. A. Pleasonton 47 

John Coclirane Gl 

Gov. John N Goodwin 81 

W.A.Booth 83 

S. J. Tilden 89 

E. C. Benedict 99 

J. G. Smith 105 

J. E. English Ill 

8. M. Weed U9 

S. C, Herring V25 

Geo. Opdyko 141 

C. H. McCorraick 14.5 

H.I. KimbaU 167' 

A. 8. Divon 171 

George W. Mead 179 

Thos. Le Clear 189 

Oliver Charlick 197 

Pliny Freeman jm 

D. W. BUss ', 

R. K. Scott I 

D. C. Littlejohn j ; 

Wm. B. Gierke : ; 

B. H. Jonka I 

CO. Cox ..' ■ . I, 

Richard Vaiix : i 

Thos. C. Fields j .7 

Bush R. Sloane iiU 

Gov. Thos. Carney 267 

H.A.Smythe 273 

John J. McCook JSI 

H.C.Caroy - . 

I.I.Hayes ■" 

Geo. JI. Curtis 

Henry D. Cooke :> . 

Thos. B. Bryan ;i.; 

W. L. Livingston 319 

Ely 8. Parker 331 

M. C. Wilcox 339 

Jas. L. Plimpton 343 

Samuel I. Prime 351 

Sihis M. Stilwell 355 

Geo. N. Kennedy 367 

Col. H. B. Wright 371 

David Paul Brown 377 

Joeepli Fagnani 383 

Jas. Termlliger , 393 

Rev. Wm. L. Harris 397 

Gen. J. H. Sypher 114 

Hon. Richard T. Merrick 411 

Hon. N. P. Chipman 423 

Gen. Jas. 8. Negley 427 

John F. Henry 433 



443 



Col. Wra. N. Color 

Capt. Willard Glazier 

Hon. Henry G. Davis 471 

Hon. Honry Cooper 475 

Hon. Frederick A. Sawyer 481 

Hon. 8. C. Pomeroy 487 

Hon. W. C. Whitthome 497 

Hon. John Lynch 603 

Hon. L. A. Sheldon 511 

Hon. Chas. B. Farwell 519 

Hon. Leonard Myers 525 

Manaliold Tracy Walworth 531 

Hon. Geo. E. Harris 535 

Gen. Chas. W. Darling 539 

Hon. Chas. Foster 543 

Hon. Wm. H. H. StoweU 547 

Hon. Sam'l Shellabarger 551 

Hon. J. M. Rusk 567 

Hon. Jas. M. Ashley 573 

Maj. Willard Bullard 595 

Col. WuKon Dwight 601 

''■"-' 1. n. stanard 605 

I ' riiorne 609 

1 I '■■ Higlae 613 

i I ■ <■" -l-i|ii'on 617 



■Jatterlce.. 

1 Norton. 

Blood. . . . 

illiam. 



G. Tcmnloton Strong 653 

Rear Adm'l Benj. F. Sands 657 



715 



Gen. Silas Si;ymom- 721 

Chas. P. Herrick 735 

Gov. Ed. M. McCook 747 

Gen. 8. P. Heintzelman 753 

Hon. Honry Smith 761 

Gov. W. B. Lawrence 769 

J. W. Foster 785 

J.E.Ward 795 

Judge OUver H. Pi'lmor 803 

Ovmgton Benedict 811 

Arthur Gilman 817 

Charles W. Lowell 823 

CorneUus A. Wortendyke 831 

Gardner Quiucv Colton 835 

David J. Mitchell 841 

Gov. Bowen 847 




if^t^-iy'. J"- f3 ■ T^atJ^ 



SAMUEL F. B. MOESE. 

BY THE HON. AMOS KENDALL. 



fAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE, is the oldest son of 
the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D. D., the author of Morse's 
Geography. He was bom at Chaslestown, Massachusetts, 
on the 27th of April, 1791. His mother's name was Breese. She 
was a decendant of the Rev. Samuel Finley, D. D., a former Presi- 
dent of Princeton College. From this ancestor, and his mother. 
Professor Morse derives his Christian name. 

He graduated at Yale College in 1810. 

Young Morse had a passion for painting, so strong, that in 1811, 
his father sent him to Europe under charge of Mr. Alston, that he 
might perfect himself in the art to which he desired to devote his 
life. lie had letters to West and Copley, and soon had the satisfac- 
tion to excite the peculiar regard of the former, who was in the 
zenith of his fame. In May, 1813, his picture of the " Dying Her- 
cules " was exhibited at the Royal Academy, Somerset House, 
eliciting much commendation. Auxiliary to the painting of this 
picture, he had moulded a figure of " Hercules " in plaster, which 
he sent to the Society of Arts to take its chance for a prize in sculp- 
ture. His adventure was successful, and, on the 13th of May, 
1813, he publicly received a gold medal with high commendation 
from the Duke of Norfolk, then presiding. 

Thus encouraged, the young artist piei)ared a picture represent- 
ing the "Judgment of Jupiter in the case of Apollo, Marpessa and 



2 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. 

Idas," to contest the prize of a gold medal and fifty guineas offered 
by the Royal Academy in 1814. Being called home before the ex- 
hibition, his picture was denied admittance, because he could not 
attend in person. President West, of the Eoyal Academy, to 
whom he had exhibited the picture after it was finished, advised 
him to remain, and after the public exhibition, wrote him that he 
had no doubt it would have taken the prize. 

In August, 1S15, Mr. Morse returned to his own country flushed 
with high hopes, based on his success abroad. He opened his rooms 
in Boston, where he exliibited his " Judgment of Jupiter;" but for a 
whole year he did not receive a single offer for that picture, or a 
single order for any other of an historical character. This was a 
cruel disappointment ; for in that direction his ambition lay. 
Having thus far depended on means derived from his father, and 
seeing no prospect of independence in that line, he betook himself 
to portrait painting, and in that pursuit visited various towns in 
New Hampshire. In a few months he returned with considerable 
money acquired by painting small portraits at fifteen dollars each. 
On that trip he became acquainted with Miss Walker, of Concord, 
whom he afterwards married. He also met with a Southern gentle- 
man, who assured him that he could get abundant employment in 
tlie South at quadruple prices. 

On wi-iting to liis uncle, Dr. Fialey, of Charleston, S. C, that 
gentleman sent him a cordial invitation to his house while he made 
the trial. He complied, and, for a time his prospects were gloomy, 
but a portrait of his uncle finally attracted so much attention that 
orders for portraits at sixty dollars each came in much faster than ho 
could execute them. With three thousand dollars in hand, and en- 
gagements for a long time to come, he returned to New England and 
married Miss Walker. For four successive winters he I'etumed to 
Charleston and engaged in the practice of his profession, where he was 
not only successful, but miich respected and beloved. 

In January, 1821, Mr. Morse, in conjunction with John S.Cogdell, 



originated the " South Carolina Academy of Fine Arts," of which 
the late Joel R. Poinset was President. It was incorporated, and 
had several exhibitions, but has been broken up for lack of adequate 
supjDort. 

When American artists were to be employed to fill with a pic- 
ture one of the vacant panels of the rotunda of the Capitol, they, 
without exception, considered Mr. Morse first entitled to the honor; 
and great was their disappointment when another was selected. 
They exhibited their sense of the wi-ong done him by voluntarily 
raising a subscription to pay him for a picture suited to such a 
national object. A considerable sum was collected and paid over 
to him, but not enough to enable him to complete the design in a 
manner satisfactory to himself. Determined that no man should 
have an opportunity to charge him with appropriating this money 
without an equivalent, he resolved to refund the amounts paid over 
to him; and, though sorely pressed, never ceased his efibrts until 
he had paid back the last cent. 

Professor Morse, under the most straitened circumstances, always 
had an insuperable repugnance to contracting debts, or living on 
the bounty of others. His dying mother, after encountering much 
suffering from the kindness of his father in lending his name to 
friends whom he trusted, exacted a promise from her son that he 
would never thus endanger his own peace of mind and the comfort 
of his household, and to that promise he has religiously adhered. 

During his collegiate course, ending in 1810, Professor Morse had 
been instructed by Professor Silliman in all that was then known 
on the subject of electricity, and the formation of electric batteries. 
During the residence of his family at New Haven, about 1824, 
enjoying the friendship of Professor Silliman, and having free ac- 
cess to his laboratory, he obtained from those sources full informa- 
tion of the progress of electrical discovery and science from 1810 
up to that time. In the winter of 1826-7, he attended a series of 
lectures on electricity, delivered by Profssor Dana, of New York, 
3 



4 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. 

and there saw tlie first Electro-Magnet which ever was exhibited 
ill America. Dana was an enthusiast on the subject of Electro- 
Magnetism, and being an intimate friend of Mr. Morse, made it a 
topic of constant conversation. Had not death struck him down in 
the spring of 1827, he would have probably become the leading 
electrician of America. 

Circumstances awakened anew Morse's ambition for distinction 
as an historical painter. He conceived the idea of painting the 
interior of the Eepresentatives' Chamber in the Capitol at Washing- 
ton, and raising a revenue by its exhibition. He located his family 
in New Haven, and devoted eighteen months to the painting of 
this picture. It measured eight feet by nine, and contained a great 
variety of figures. Its exhibition however, instead of producing 
an income, resulted in a considerable loss, and this, with contribu- 
tions in common with his brothers, to discharge their father's pecu- 
niary liabilities, swept away all he had accumulated at Charleston. 

Mr. Morse then sought employment in New York, and finally 
obtained from the corporation an order to paint a portrait of Gen. 
Lafayette, who was then in the United States. For that purpose 
he visited Washington ; but, in February, 1825, he was called 
home by news of the death of his wife. His labors upon this pic- 
ture were further interrupted by the sickness of his children, and 
the death of his excellent father and mother. 

Morse now made New York his place of residence. In the Fall 
of 1825 he was active in organizing a drawing association, which 
constituted the germ of the " National Academy of Design," of 
which he was President for many years after its organization. 
Though gotten up under great difiSculties and amidst much contro- 
versey, this institution has been eminently successful. 

In 1827, he delivered, before the New York Athenaeum, the 
first course of lectures on tlie fine aits ever delivered in America. 

In 1829, he again visited Europe, spending three years among 
artists and collections of art in England, Italy and France. In 
4 



SAMUEL P. B. MORSE. 5 

Paris, he paiuted the interior of the Louvre, copying in miniature 
the most remarkable paintings hanging on its wall. In the Fall of 
1832, he returned to the United States, and resumed his jiosition 
as President of the National Academy of Design, to which post he 
was elected every year during his absence. 

Thus far Mr. Morse had felt no other interest in electrical science 
than that of a lively curiosity. During his voyaye from Europe in 
1832, circumstances occurred which awakened new thoughts, and 
opened a new path to distinction. On board the packet-ship Sully, 
in which he embarked, he met with Dr. C. T. Jackson, of Boston, 
Hon. Wm. Rives, of Virginia, J. Francis Fisher, of Philadehihia, 
and several other intelligent men. The conversation embraced a 
gi'eat variety of topics, of which recent experiments in galvanism 
and electro-magnetism were not the least interesting. Statements 
made by Dr. Jackson, in relation to certain results he had recently 
witnessed in France, suggested to Professor Morse the idea that 
either the electro-chemical or electro-magnetic effect of the current 
might be used to make permanent marks at great distances, so 
varied as to communicate ideas. The project took full possession 
of his mind, and was the subject of his daily conversation and 
nightly dreams. He found the shapes of the Roman letters and 
Arabic figures, being composed of straight lines and irregular 
angles and curves, ill suited to be made at a distance by any simple 
machinery. He therefore changed their fonns, making them of a 
straight line cut up into dots and dashes, and his letters and figures 
were made up of various combinations and elements. This part of 
his invention was substantially matured on board the Sully, and 
drawn out in a sketch-book. He had also prepared and drawn 
out in the same book a form of apparatus to make the letters and 
figures by the electro-chemical process, upon prejiared paper, pass- 
ing under the end of a wire or stylus through which the electric 
current derived from the distant battery should be made te pass. 
He had also devised a species of tvpes, to be used in breaking and 
5 



6 SAMUEL F, B, MORSE. 

closing the circuit, and giving greater or loss duration to the cur- 
rent, as might be required to malce a dash or dot. It was agreed 
between him and Dr. Jackson, that the latter, who had a laboratory, 
should try a series of experiments, to determine what chemical was 
best adapted to the purpose. 

So engrossed was the mind of Professor Morse with this new 
project, that immediately after passing salutations with his brothers 
on landing at New York, he mentioned it to them, and immediately 
set himself to work to cast the type intended for the breaking and 
closing the circuit, prepartory to the construction of the other 
machinery. But Dr. Jackson failed to make the promised experi- 
ments, and Professor Morse, suffering under the blight of poverty, 
had no funds to purchase the necessary material, and was obliged to 
resort to his pencil for the means of subsistence. 

Far from relinquishing his great project, it was the subject of con- 
stant thought ; and, hearing nothing from Dr. Jackson, he devised 
a plan for making his letters and figures by electro-magnetism. 

In 1855, Mr. Morse was appointed a professor in the University of 
New York. Having a room in the University, he constructed of 
rude materials, a miniature telegraph, embracing all the elements 
of an electro-magnetic telegraph, composed of a single circuit, 
which he afterwards patented. This was shown to a few friends 
before the close of 1835. In 1832, his friend, Dr. Gale, had been 
appointed a professor in the same university. To him Professor 
Morse showed his instrument, and disclosed all his plans. That an 
effective telegraph could be made on a very short circuit, there was 
no douht ; but experiments indicated that the magnetic influence 
of the electric current rapidly diminished as the length of the cir- 
cuit was extended, so as to make it uncertain at what distance suffi- 
cient power to make a mark, or even produce a motion, could be ob- 
tained. Prof Morse conceived a plan by which he could mark at 
any distance where he could produce motion. This was by employ- 
ing the motion obtained unon a first circuit to break and close a 
6 



SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. 7 

second, which might be made as short as necessary to obtain mark- 
ing power. But the idea did not stop there ; it contemplated the 
use of the second circuit to close and break the thiid, and so on in- 
definitely. The only obvious inconveniences of this plan, so far 
as the recording is concerned, are obviated by the introduction of 
the local circuits. Instead of shortening the main circuits, so that 
the power of their batteries shall be sufficient to record on all parts 
of the circuits, they may be extended as far as motion can be ob- 
tained, and this motion is used to break and close a local circuit 
wherever a station may be wanted. At first, the recording appara- 
tus was only a register worked by an electro-magnet in the main 
circuit. The recording apparatus consists of a local battery and 
circuit, a, register magnet and register, called into action by an 
electro-naagnet in the main circuit. 

Professor Morse's merits as an inventor have been severely criti- 
cised, and attempts have been made to confine them to very narrow 
limits. What they really are, is now pretty well establislied. 

A variety of batteries had been invented. 

One thing was yet wanting ; that was, some means of renewing 
the magnetic force of the electric current before it becomes entirely 
exhausted by reason of the length of the circuit. Tliat desideratum 
Professor Morse supplied by his combined circuits. This, with his 
alphabet, and the new mechanism employed by him, constitutes 
Morse's invention; and these, in combination with the new result 
produced by him, are all he claims. 

Other countries are doing honor to the American inventor. A 
telegraphic convention of the German States, of which Professor 
Steinheil was the leading spirit, recommending Morse's invention in 
preference to his own, has adopted it for general use throughout Ger- 
many. He has received honorary testimonials from tlie Sultan of 
Turkey, the Kings of Prussia, Wurtemburg, Italy, Portugal and 
Denmark, the Legion of Honor from the Emperor of France, 
Knight Commander of the order of Isabella from the Queen of 
7 



8 SAMUKT, V. 1!. MDUSK. 

Spain, while tlu> Proiuh Academy, and tlio most distinguished 
Nuniiifi in Franco and England concede his merits. 

lOven the adversary counsel, in an argument het'orc the Supreme 
Court of the United States, admitted that Professor Morse was the 
tirst ti) invent '' a pradicani/ usiiful ch'ctro-magnctic nurrTving tele- 
graph." The world will not hesitate to believe that whieii an in- 
terested coimsel do not think it expedient to deny. 

Tt may not be generally known that Prof. Morse and his broth- 
ers were the first who experimented successfully in the art of Pho- 
tography in this country. 

Sidney E. ]\Iorse, in u letter in response to an invitation to attend 
the semi-centennial celebration of the first Sabbath school society 
in Massachusetts, gives a good account of those e.Kperiments : — 

" rrior to the relinquishment of his profession as a painter, Trofessor Moore, your 
first superinteuilout, was tlie instrument in tlie hand of I'rovideuce, of introilucing Into 
tliis country that jtreat ( I may say tlie greatest ) wonder of our age, the new Art qf 
Vhatography. Photography, tlien under the name of Daguerreotype, it is well known 
was invented by the celebrated Daguorre, a French artist, who exhibited his first col- 
lection of specimens to the members of the French .\cademy of Sciences in Paris, 
early in the ycai- 1839. My brother was in Paris at the same time, exhibiting his tele- 
graph to the same persons Brother artists and brother inventore, thus brought to- 
gether, each was invited io examine the other's invention; and my brother became 
earnest in his desire to iutrodiico the Daguerreotjrpe into America. On his return to 
New York, in April, 1S30, ho inspired my younger brother and myself with a portion of 
his own enthusiasm He was then entirely destitute of pecuniary means; and after 
ascertaining whfit was «-.vnte<l to enable him to gratify his imd our wishes, we ivmoved 
the central part of the roof of our six-story building. No. IIO Nassau Street, added a 
seventh story to this part of the buiUling, covered it with a skylight, furnished the new 
chamber with c.uuenw and the other apparatus of photography, and, having thus com- 
pleted the fii-st " talnnnacle for the sun," erected on the Western hemisphere, placeit 
your first superinteudeut there to fix for inspection through all time, the perfect images 
of mcii ftud thiuu^. as the great Painter, from his fcibernaclc in tlie heavens, Qasheti 
them upon the silver plates. It was in that ch;unl>er that ho, who first pmctised the 
art of tnvining in your S;»bl>ath scluwl iu 181C, trained the young men who wont forth 
rejoicing from New York into every iwrt of our Umd, to work the wonders and display 
the beauties of the new art, eliciting admiration from all beholders, and fropi the de- 
vout tlie exclamation which four years afterwards passed in an instiUit through the 
wire from \Va.<hiugton to IMtimore, to be recorded there, while it was echoe 1 every- 
where, " What hath Coil wivught fo the two swift messengers of heaven, the light 
and the Lightning, having then both been trained to stop and stamp iu durable 
characters, their declaration of tho glorv of God. 

8 



" It may not be known to all readers that the first message sent by the inventor of 
the Itecording Telegraph, througli his first telegraph line, on its completion from 
Washington to Baltimore in 1844, was, " What hath God wrought I" 

Mr. Morse's summer residence stands about two miles south of 
the City of Poughkecpsie, in the State of New York, about a mile 
and a half from the banks of the Hudson, which it overlooks, upon 
a plain elevated about two hundred feet above the level of its 
waters. The deep cut of the Hudson River Railroad, two miles 
south of Poughkecpsie, is a part of Mr. Morse's estate, which extends 
from his residence to the river. The scenery around is of the most 
beautiful and picturesque character. The waters of the Hudson, 
dotted with the canvas of innumerable boats swimming over its 
calm surface, convey to the eye the image of mingled peace and 
activity. The highlands adjacent rise up before the mind in their 
shaggy outlines with the Ihoughts of the majesty of the Creator, 
rising as they do towards ihe blue heavens above them, their tops 
glistening in the sheen of the setting sun. From the upper win- 
dows of the tower, the scenery on every side is magnificent and 
subduing. On the stillness of a summer's eve, with its soft winds 
passing over and around us, the odor of a thousand different flow- 
ers returning the care of the Professor's hand by their sweet 
incense thrown up from their saucy, smiling lips, and the song 
of birds whistling in the consciousness of security from snare 
or murdering gun, who will blame us for feeling the words of the 
poet springing up within us ? ' 

" My only wish is this, that I might forever dwell 
Among such scenes as these, without the fear of death, 
Or touch of mortal decay." 

Long may the Professor enjoy his home, spending his declining 
years in the serenity of a conscience imreproaching, of a charity 
unfailing, of a simplicity of character unsullied by the memory of 
injury to any, and in the purity of a faith which sees beyond these 
scenes, these passing clouds, these flowers so soon to fade, a habita- 
tion in another and more beautiful world than even this ! 
9 





i^.^:?^^^^^ 




c. K. gaeriso:n". 

;? HE subject of tbis biograpbical notice, Cornelius K. 
Garrison, was born in tbe neighborbood of West Point 
on tbe Hudson, on Marcb Ist, 1809. His forefatbers 
were among tbe earbest settlers of New Amsterdam, and were 
of tbat colony of wortby Hollanders, wbose brain and muscle 
maugurated tbe pioneer efforts wbich bave resulted in tbe un- 
equaled development of tbis country. His ancestors-tbe Garri- 
sons and Coverts on bis fatber's side, and tbe Kingslands and 
Scbuylers on bis motber's-were old Knickerbocker families of 
wbose blood any descendant migbt be proud. 

During tbe cbildbood of Cornelius, bis fatber, Oliver Garrison 
by some misadventure, lost all bis fortune, be baving been pre- 
viously a large capitalist, consequently tbe son was tbrown on bis own 
resources at an eariy age. Undaunted by tbe misfortune of bis 
fatber, he speedily resolved to take care of himself; and it is here 
m tbis readiness to appreciate a necessity, and determination to 
surmount difficulty, that we discover in the youth the germs of a 
will and an energy that bave served the man so wcU in after life. 

During tbe business season, be was employed in the carrying 
trade on the river, and thus passed three years of bis life from bis 
thirteenth to bis sixteenth year. In the meantime, fully aware of 
the great value of education, he diligently applied himself to study 
whenever occasion presented, and particulariy during the winter 
months when the navigation of tbe river was closed. 

At the age of sixteen, in compliance with his mother's earnest 
wish, be went to New York for the purpose of studying architec- 
ture, and here during three yea,-.' of application to that particular 
31 



2 



GARRISON. 



bi'auch, he acquired valuable information, which served hira well 
in the time immediately following. 

At the expiration of the three years in New York, he removed 
to Canada, where he remained five years or more, actively engaged 
in planning and erecting buildings, constructing steamboats on 
the Lakes, and otherwise turning his architectural knowledge to 
good account. "While in Canada, he made the acquaintance of 
and subsequently married, a lady from Buflfalo, New York. While 
there, also, he acquired an enviable reputation for reliable, clear- 
headed business sagacity, evidenced by the Upper Canada Com- 
pany giving to him the general supervision of its affairs in Canada. 
This position, valuable as it was, considering the vast wealth and 
power of the company, was soon renounced by Mr. Garrison, on 
account of the then threatening aspect of affairs between England 
and the United States, arising from border difficulties. 

On leaving Canada, Mr. Garrison returned to the States, and 
located in the Southwest, where he entered largely in his business, 
and was also interested in other enterprises connected with the 
navigation of the Mississippi. On the discovery of gold in Cali- 
fornia, he went to Panama and established a banking house, which 
proved his most successful undertaking thus far. In 1852, he vis- 
ited New York, with the view of establishing a branch bank, but 
receiving at this time a favorable offer from the Nicaragua Steam- 
ship Line, to take the San Francisco agency of their business, he 
accepted the position and set out immediately for California. 

The great work which he accomplished during a seven years' 
stay in California, is one which to relate would necessitate a his- 
tory almost in detail of the city of San Francisco itself during that 
period. He reached the city on the steamer Sierra Nevada, in the 
latter part of March, 1853. As agent of this steamship line, he 
received a salary at the rate of $60,000 per annum, and had about 
$25,000 additional as representative of sundry Insurance companies. 
His first efforts were directed to the reformation of the Nicaragua 
Steamship Line, whose business was rapidly declining under in- 
32 



C. K. GARRISOIJ. 3 

competent management and the odium attending the terrible dis- 
asters of the Independence and 8. S. Lewis. With characteristic 
energy, and admirable comprehension, difficulties that threatened 
to engulf his company in financial ruin, were speedily mastered, 
and his wonderful administrative ability, inspiring life and effici- 
ency in every department of the service, restored almost magical 
prosperity to the enterprise, and placed it in powerful competition 
with the strongest lines on the Pacific coast. 

Fame of course attended tliis work. Its master spirit found 
himself suddenly a public favorite, and this appreciation found ex- 
pression in his being elected Mayor of San Francisco in six months 
after his arrival. This honor came wholly unsolicited by Mr. Gar- 
rison, who rather preferred the pursuit of his great business enter- 
prises, to any political preferment. Such a graceful compliment, 
however, by the citizens of San Francisco to one almost a stranger 
among them could not be declined, although Mr. Garrison entered 
upon his new duties with many misgivings respecting his capability, 
heightened no doubt by the knowledge of the ability and suc- 
cess of his immediate predecessors in office. A work styled " Rep- 
resentative Men of the Pacific," from which we have gathered the 
foregoing data, thus speaks of Mr. Garrison's advent and efficiency 
in the mayoralty : " It was soon evident that the same sound 
judgment and executive talent that could grasp and prosperously 
control steamship lines and banking institutions, could with equal 
facility administer the aJBFairs of a community. His inaugural ad- 
dress, delivered in October, 1853, to the two branches of the Com- 
mon Council, was a model of plain, unpretending, common sense, 
abounding in practical suggestions, going straight to the point, and 
quite devoid ot flourish or attempt at oratorical display. lie ac- 
knowledged the weight of the responsibility, and pledged himself 
to devote his best energies to the interests of the city. A month 
later he submitted a message, which may challenge any paper of 
the kind, in sound business ideas and financial propositions. It 
contained the germs of what became, years afterwards, the r.diy- 
33 



4 C..K. GARRISON. 

iiiy cries of reform in the administration of the city government. 
The lirst outspoken denunciation in any official document, of the 
disgraceful public gambling then prevalent in the many saloons of 
San Francisco, and the first rebuke of Sunday theatricals, with a 
recommendation for ordinances for their suppression, are found in 
this message. And it was not merely a verbal protest against tlie 
evils described. Mr. Garrison never ceased to wage war against 
them until the desired reforms were completely eflfected. The crime 
of a public gaming bell has never blackened the fame of San Fran- 
cisco since Mayor Garrison's term. For this act alone he is enti- 
tled to the gratitude of all who respect morality, decency, and good 
order. The first proposal of an Industrial School for juvenile de- 
linquents, who should thus be separated from contact with the hard- 
ened criminals in the cells of the city prison ; the earliest suggest- • 
ions of a tarifi" of hack fares for the protection of strangers from 
extortion ; the taxation of non-resident capital ; the building of sub- 
stantial, w.ell-ventilated school houses in place of the shanties then 
used in various districts — these, among other proposals equally 
sensible and at that time novel, were embodied in the message." 

That Mr. Garrison's efforts were potent in enhancing the pros- 
perity and good government of San Francisco no one can gainsay. 
In the way of education he accomplished much. When the money 
required for the construction of school houses was called for, and 
could not be obtained at proper quarters, he advanced it from his 
private means. He organized the first African school in San Fran- 
cisco, believing that as the negroes were destined, at some future day, 
to enjoy the rights of citizenship, it was proper to prepare them 
therefor by education. 

At this time, apart from his other and engrossing duties, he never 
lost sight of two favorite schemes in his mind. The one a steamship 
line to China and Australia, and the other the exploration ot a 
route for the Pacific Raiboad. He urged immediate action on these 
subjects whenever occasion offered. He was the first subscriber to 
a Telegraph line across the Sierras to demonstrate the practicability 

a4 



C. K. GARRISON. 5 

of overland telegraphic communication between San Francisco and 
New York. 

During his stay in California there were few charitable enter- 
prises to which he was not a ready and liberal contributor. One 
notable instance of this characteristic generosity is recorded in his 
serving the public gratuitously during his whole term as Mayor; a 
check drawn for the entire amount of his salary having been dona- 
ted and divided equally by him among the Eoman Catholic and 
Protestant Orphan Asylums. Nor were these benevolent dispensa" 
tions confined to San Francisco or California. Hundreds of desti- 
tute people at Panama were relieved at his personal expense, and it 
was he who, in September, 1853, was foremost in a movement for aid- 
ing the sufferers from yellow fever in New Orleans, and contributed of 
his private means unsparingly to that end. His services in thismatter 
were warmly appreciated by the public, and the Germans of San 
Francisco, in a special meeting, passed him a vote of thanks for his 
effective aid in the transmission of funds and otherwise. 

After an eventful career in California, during which the City of 
San Francisco experienced, under his able administration and by 
his enlightened cooperation in great works of public improvement, 
of moral, social, and educational advancement, a stimulus and im- 
pulsion in the way of prosperity never before realized. Mr. Garri- 
son returned to New York City in the year 1859. Here he became 
at once a bold and successful financier, interested in great commer- 
tial entei-prises, and taking a principal part in some of the heaviest 
transactions of the times. He is now one of the leading Steamship 
proprietors in the United States. He assisted the Government in 
multitudes of ways, during the late war, rendering incalculable ser- 
vice by the aid of his steamship sei-vice. When the Union cause 
was in sorest need, and capital was hesitating, Mr. Gamson fitted 
out, principally by his own exertions and responsibility, what was 
known as Bxdler's Ship-Island Expedition. This patriotic endeavor 
was formally acknowledged by President Lincoln, Secretary Seward, 
Mr. Sumner and other leading members of Congress. 
35 



6 C. K. GARRISON. 

Ilia visit to the metropolis of the Pacific, one of the earliest over 
the railroad across the continent, after an absence of ten years, was 
the occasion of an enthusiastic ovation, tendered in the way of 
heartfelt congratulations and kind wishes by his many friends who 
welcomed his return. A short time prior to his departure from 
San Francisco, he received the following communication, signed 
by the most prominent professional and business men of the city : 

San Fkancisco, Angitd 10th, 1869. 
Hon. C. K. Gaekison: 

Dkak Sir. — In token of the very great regard we entertain for 
you, both on account of your public services and private benefices 
to the citizens of San Francisco, we, your old friends and associates, 
beg to ask your acceptance of a farewell dinner, to be given at the 
Maison Doroe, on Moiulay evening, August 16th, at seven o'clock. 
(Here follow some thirty or more signatures.) 

At the elegant and sumptuous banquet which followed the accept- 
ance of this invitation, Hon. Ogden Hoifman, United States District 
Judge, Governor Haight, and Hon. Frank McCoppin, Mayor of the 
city, were present as invited guests. Dr. A. J. Bowie presided, and 
made the following address : 

Gentlemen : This banquet to-night, to the Hon. C. K. Garrison, 
was prompted by a desire on the part of Mr. Garrison's friends to 
convey to him fii-st, their full recognition of the great services he 
had rendered to this community, in behalf of immigration to our 
city and State, but more especially because of his personal endear- 
ment to the early surviving settlers and residents of the City of 
San Francisco. We can scarcely hope, however much we may 
desire it, that Mr. Garrison will again venture to enconter the 
toil of another visit to our city, which we know he loves so well, 
and to whose development and growth he has contributed so 
largely; and therefore, at one and the same moment, we procl.iim 
our pleasure at securing him, and our regret at parting, by bidding 

him farewell. 

36 



C . K. G A K R I S O N . 7 

To which Mr. Garrison replied as follows : 

Gentlemen : I am filled with the greatest emotion at this most 
u!iexpected and flattering entertainment on the part of my old 
friends. If I had required any incentive beyond what had been 
supplied by my past relations with California, this spectacle of so 
mnch worth and intelligence would urge me still further in hope 
and effort to develope the interests of this mighty country. Gen- 
tlemen, my heart is too full of gratitude for this splendid ovation 
to permit me to do aught else but beg you will accept the poverty 
of my language to express my full feelings of gratitude. 

Messrs. Judge Delos Lake, Judge Lyons, General E. D. Keyes, 
W. C. Ealston, Charles E. McLane, Hall McAllister, Joseph P. 
Hoge, J. G. Eastland and others followed in addresses equally ap- 
propriate for the occasion. 

Mr. Gan-ison, as before remarked, is now a resident of New York 
city, and largely identified with its commercial prosperity. 

For a number of years past, during which time our national com- 
merce has been languishing under discouragements which few capi- 
talists have been willing to encounter, Mr. Garrison has maintained 
the only United States Mail Steamship line with which our Gov- 
ernment has a contract, carrying the American flag on the Atlantic 
ocean, the important service between New York and Brazil, of 
which line he is the founder and largest owner. His son, Mr. Wil- 
liam R. Garrison, a gentleman of the most unblemished character, 
keenest sense of honor, and eminent business abilities, is president 
of this company, and has recently enlarged his own interests in the 
South American trade by the establishment of a line of ships which 
have just been completed on the Clyde, intended for the mail, pas- 
senger and carrying trade on the Brazilian coast under contract with 
that government. 

There are but few men in this community who can, after such a 

short residence here, show such a large connection in great business 

enterprises as C. K. GaiTison can ; and not only in this city has his 

influence been felt, but elsewhere. He is one of the largest owners 

37 



of the People s Gas Light Company, of Chicago, having taken up 
the business in its infancy in the early days of the war, discovering 
with his usual sagacity the important future of the entei-prise, and 
carrying it on steadily under discouragements which would have 
lisheartened an ordinary man, until it has become a very important 
company, lighting the entire west side of the city, and destined 
under the unexampled growth of Chicago to become the most valu- 
able business investment of the kind in this country outside of the 
city of New York. 

Mr. Garrison is an extensive owner of real estate in San Francisco, 
St. Louis and other cities, and is a man of very large fortune. He 
is recognized by his co-workers in great business enter|)rises as well 
as by all who know him, as a man of extraordinary energy, keenest 
foresight, and a perseverance which appeciates the word difficulty 
as a mere incentive to greater exertion. He abhors debt, and a dili- 
gent search in times of greatest financial disturbance would fail to 
find his name upon the street. He is seldom, if ever, known to be- 
come discom-aged in any business matter which he once undertakes. 
Of very tenacious memory, warm in his friendsliips, charitable and 
magnanimous in his disposition, very abstemious in his habits, tol- 
erant and conservative in his opinions, of fine social qualities and ex- 
cellent convcrsatioTial powers, his record in the past is one of which 
any man might well be proud, and bis influence in the future can- 
not be other than that of contimicd benefit to any coniiiiunity in 
which he may reside. 

38 




MAKSIIALL O. ROBERTS. 

HE subject of tliis sketch is one of the great capitalists of 
Kew York. His name and fame have become national. Like 



most of tlie leading men of this country, Mr. Roberts owes 
- his success not to the accidents of fortune so much as to his 
own untiring industry, native shrewdness, great foresight, and un- 
Hinehing courage. He was not born in the purple, but achieved it. His 
father, Owen Roberts, was a Welsh physician, who came to New York 
in the year 1798 ; his mother, a Miss Marsliall, of Birmingham, Eng- 
land, where her husband met and married her. Dr. Roberts settled 
down to practice in New York, and assiduously followed his arduous 
profession till his death, which occurred in 1817, from disease con- 
tracted while attending the sick poor. Marshall Owen Roberts was 
tha fourth and youngest son of this worthy couple. He was born in 
Oliver Street, March 22, 1814, and was tlius fatherless before his 
fourth year, and at eight years of age lost his mother. His eldest 
brother, who was assistant surgeon of the Franklin 74, under Com- 
mander Stewart, died at an early age in the service of his country. 

Though thus early thrown upon the world, young Roberts 
manifested that pluck and determination to make his way which have 
since carried him successfully tlirough life. His first employment, at 
eight years of age, was as office-boy in the grocery and ship store of 
John R. Soper, in Coenties' Slip, where he remained five years. Then 
he apprenticed himself to Alderman Jamieson to learn the saddlery 
business, working nights to earn the $50 required by his master as 
the customary apprentice fee. In this employment he continued 
for a year, till his health failed, and he was obliged to seek other 
occupation. An advertisement in the Courier and Enquirer for 
a clerk in a ship chandlery attracted him. New York was not so 
populous then as now, but there were even then more applicants for 
work than places to be filled, and the boy found thirty persons ahead 
of him. Mr. William Spies, the advertiser, liked young Marshall's 
appearance, and gave him the sitiiation. A brief trial sliowed the 
merchant that the lad deserved his confidence. His assiduity and 
business tact so impressed Mr. Spies that he gave his new clerk 
^300 a year. 

3a 



MARSHAL] 



At this employment the hoy continued till Mr. Spies died, and, 
after his death, was retained by his' successor, Mr. Burdett, till his 
salary rose to $(500 a year. This was the highest wages young 
Koberts ever received ; but his frugality enabled him to save enough 
out of it, so that when a favorable opportunity arose, during his 
twentietli year, he was able to go into business on his own account in 
Coenties' Slip. 

Here, in his little store, he was on hand early and late. When 
the fishermen came in before daylight with their takes, the young 
man was at his counter, store lighted up, and ready for business. 
The fishermen bought twines to repair their nets at his place, and 
such snpjilies as were needful for their trade. His store became known 
as " The Lighthouse." In those old-fashioned times, the Whitneys, 
the Lennoxes, the Nostrands, and others of the leading merchants of 
New York who then lived around the fashionable Battery, used to 
go in person, basket on arm, to Fid ton Market for their fiimily supplies 
before breakfast and business. The store of young Eoberts served 
as a sort of half-way house to these early birds, and the substantial 
old gentlemen used to drop in and exchange a kindly word with the 
young merchant while they warmed their toes and conned over the 
morning papers. In due course of time, these representative men 
of the commerce and finance of New York became the friends of 
Mr. Koberts, and learned to respect and confide in the qualities 
which he thus early manifested. As they stood high in the financial 
world of that day, controlling the banking interests of the city, it is 
not strange that, when the rising merchant saw opportunities for 
profitable investment, they were willing to aid him in procuring 
discount. He thus in time became able to control the Russian 
hemp market in this country, to make large operations in tallow 
and naval stores, and to take the front rank as a ship-chandler. By 
these means, he was naturally brought into contact with maritime 
people, and it was not long before his influence was felt on the 
rivers and lakes and upon the sea. He projected and built the 
steamer Jlendrick, and took stock in the steamboat lines in which 
Isaac Newton, George Law, Daniel Drew, and Cornelius Yanderbilt 
laid the foundation of their fortunes. From steamboating he turned 
to railroads. 

The Erie, the New York Central, and the Florida he was 
largely instrumental in originatim;' and building. He is now Bresi- 
40 



M A R 8 H A T, T, O . K n B E R T S . .'> 

dent of the Southern Pacitic Railway, which is ah-uady well uiuler 
way. He was a large promoter of the Crotoii Water- Works, the 
Erie Tunnel and Long Dock enterprises, and his influeuee lias heeu 
felt in the furtherance of most of our great public improvements on 
the land and the water all over the continent. 

The Californian gold fever of 18-i9 found him a rising merchant 
and a considerable owner of steamboat and steamship stock. 
Foreseeing the immense emigration which must set in Pacific- 
ward, he shaped his course to control it, and soon, in conjunction 
with George Law, obtained the contract to carry the mails for the 
United States Mail Steamship Co., of which Mr. Law was president 
and Mr. Roberts agent. A vigorous opposition spi-ang up, and the 
rival Pacific Mail Steamship Go. was estabiished. In 1852-3, he 
procured the consolidation of the Pacific Mail interests with those of 
his own company, one coii^oration performing the Pacific, the other 
the Atlantic, service. Mr. Law becoming restive under the ai-range- 
ment, Mr. Roberts, in conjunction with others, bought out Law; 
but at the critical moment his associates retired, leaving Mr. 
Roberts liable for a million, without apparently adequate resour- 
ces. Ruin stared liim in the face, but Marshall knew no such 
word as fail. He immediately resolved to consummate the bargain 
without them, and by the time stipulated, so solid was his credit, 
he had the means in hand, an immense undertaking for those days, 
and fulfilled all his obligations. This was undoubtedly the founda- 
tion of his great fortune. From 1851 to 1857, Mr. Roberts was 
President of the North River Bank. In 1854, he was ajjproached 
by Mr. Cyi-us W. Field to aid in building the Atlantic Telegraph. 
To his quick and far-seeing judgment the immense possibilities of 
the enterprise were apparent, and he became one of the earliest and 
most liberal contributors to this stupendous undertaking. And so 
it has been throughout. From the first he had been foremost in 
works designed for the development of the country and the good of 
the pec pie. 

While pursuing the practical, and contributing of his ample 
mo?inF towards great public enterprises, he has been no less 
liberal in works of benevolence and charity. As a patron of the 
fine arts, he has been equally distinguished. His American Art 
Gallery is famous, not only here, but abroad, as one of the most 
princely of private collections. 

41 



MARSHALL O. ROBEKTS. 

Unlike most successful merchants, Mr. Roberts is also a zealous 
politician. From his earliest career he was an active fireman and 
a staunch Whig. In 1851, his party nominated him for Congress, 
but he was defeated by the late Francis B. Cutting, Democrat. 
In 1865, he was the Eepublican candidate for Mayor of New York, 
and but for the folly of putting up a third candidate, would have been 
chosen. As it was, John T. Hoffman was counted in, though the 
plurality of votes has been very generally claimed by the friends of 
Mr. Roberts. He headed the Republican electoral ticket in 1868. 
In 1870, he was urged to accept the Republican nomination for 
Governor, but he declined in favor of his friend Horace Greeley. 
The latter however failed, through chicanery, to secure a nomina- 
tion, and the State went Democratic. There is no doubt, with Mr. 
Roberts as the candidate, the result would have been otherwise. 
Mr. Roberts is fifty-seven years of age, and is still a hale, vigorous 
man, in the full plenitude of his physical and intellectual powers. 
Mr. Roberts is about five feet eight inchef in height, with square 
shoulders, and a form designed for activity and strength. His eye 
is bright with equal intelligence and goodness of heart. Probably 
there is no other prominent citizen of New York who has helped 
so many young men to start in life as Mr. Roberts. He has been 
twice married, and has two daughters and one son living. 
"With his immense experience, his splendid business ability, his 
amplfc meaiis, undct-bted integrity, and great popularity, there 
is anqaestioiiibly a still more brilliant prospect before him in the 
future, if he can be induced to accept public service. 
42 



"iiasi m^ 




nm^ f-—^ 



^/y// L^/^^ 



HORACE B. OLAFLm. 



i'm^ F this gentleman, and his great dry-goods house, extending 
)^^.^ from Church Street to West Broadway, the editor of 
}}^^^^ The New York Mercantile Journal discourses as follows, 
adding that the sales of the firm are annually much larger than those 
of any other on the continent : 

" The visitor to our metropolis, who Cdiucs hither either on busi- 
ness or for pleasure, and who, having formerly been familiar with the 
city, has not taken a good look at it for some years, will be aston- 
ished at the changes and improvements which he will see at every 
step. Whole blocks of decayed and rickety tenements have disap- 
peared, and vast structures, dedicated to trade, have been erected. 

" By these admirable transformations, the district bounded by 
Broadway, Canal, West Broadway, and Chambers Streets, has been, 
within the last twelve years, altogether changed. Miserable hovels 
and dens of vice (with which Church Street especially abounded) 
have disappeared, and some of the most extensive and magnificent 
warehouses in the world now stand on their site. 

" This gratifying result is, in large measure, due to the foresight 
and enterprise of Mr. Horace B. Clafliii, the senior member of the 
celebrated dry goods firm of H. B. Clafiin & Co. 

" The dry goods palace of this gi-eat house, with its frontage of 
eighty feet on Church Street, eighty feet on West Broadway, and 
three hundred and seventy-five feet on Worth Street, was the pio- 
neer building, of grand dimensions, intended for business purposes, 
43 



erected in the district whdse appearance and reputation had former- 
ly disgraced the city. 

" Owing to the immense traffic which the firm carried in that di- 
rection, the atljacent streets have also become Hned witli imposing 
structures. 

" The subsequent addition made by the Claflin firm to their al- 
ready spacious edifice, measures fifty by one hundred and twenty 
feet, and, taken together with their former building, gives them a 
total floor area of about six acres. 

" Who can question the magnitude of business, requiring the aid 
of such lordly space, in the control of a private firm ; and wiio can 
doubt the energy and ability of the man from whose originating 
mind and high ambition, as a merchant, such ample success has 
sprung ? 

" H. B. Clafiin, the head of the distinguished house that has thus 
become the nucleus of the trade and a benefactor of the city, is of 
New England origin. In his earlier years lie was the profirietoi- 
and manager of a dry-goods establishment in the ancient and beauti- 
ful town of Worcester, Mass. 

" Inheriting the enterprise of a New Englander, he sighed for 
wider fields of activity. Some twenty-eight years ago he came to 
New York, and located in Cedar Street as a member of the firm of 
Buckley & Claflin. Subsequently he appeared on Broadway as the 
leading partner in the highly successful house of Claflin, Melleu t^- 
Co. 

" The energy, intelligence, and integrity of this respected firm laid 
broader and deeper foundations for the still more important establish- 
ment that was to succeed it. 

" Mr. Claflia's remarkable strength of resolution, and sagacity in 
business calculations, shone out conspicuously in the trying days 
of 1861, when, owing to the war troubles, and the disorganization of 
correspondence with the trade of the South, his house was forced tem- 
porarily t.. suspend. At that imp .rtant juncture, his high personal 
4-i 



HOllACK B. CLAFLIN. ;; 

Standing was tlie sheet-anchor of the firm. Heavy creditors and 
light, in New York and New England, manifested unbounded confi- 
dence, and came forward with one accord to express it. The grati- 
fying consequence was, that the firm safely rode out the storm in 
which so many other concerns of high repute went down, and, in 
a short time, had discharged all their liabilities, paying one hundred 
cents on the dollar, with interest, and were careering on the bright 
sea of public favor, with a fairer breeze and better headway even than 
before. 

" The final retirement, on the 31st of December, IS 63, of 
Mr. Mellen, whose experience and peculiar talents had aided the 
progress of the concern in its earlier years, spurred the remaining part- 
ners on to still greater exertions, in order to retain the hold their 
house had acquired, and to push it into new fields of conquest. 

" Since then the firm has become still more widely known, and 
more influential, not only in America, but abroad. Mr. Olaflin has 
associated with him as partners, at the present time, Mr. Edward E. 
Eames and Mr. Edward W. Bancroft, both of whom are active men 
of sterling integrity. 

" With seven hundred clerks and employes, all selected for special 
talent and expertness, constantly employed in its immense estabhsh- 
ment in this city, and a score of purchasing agents scouring the great 
markets of Europe and America for the choicest articles in Tvery 
department embraced by their business, this firm is constantly and 
vigorously affecting the trade at large. Their sales have reached 
the enormous sum of seventy million dollars in a single year. 

"Presiding over all— directing, illuminating, and vivifying the 
work by his superior capacity— is Mr. Horace B. Claflin. Still 
comparatively in the prime of hfe, he brings to all the multiple tran- 
sactions of his house, which involve the value of hundreds of thou- 
sands per diem, a keen sagacity and decisive grasp of thought equaled 
by few, if any, of our business men. The vigor of lii.s unimpaired 
intellect is sustained by the resources of an excellent constitution 
45 



wliicii a pi'iuL'iit uinir.su ol' lil'o Ims sl.ri'ii;j;l IhmuhI; luulj us tlu' yc:iis iii- 
uroaso, liobuliokls ihi paths of usoriiliioss aud tlio rowanls of imliis- 
try 111 oiiili'iiiiig; before him. 

" 111 rouclusion, it is indeed pleasant to ns that wo are enabled to 
bear tcsliinouy tliattho lips of personal ac(iuaiiitancos, business asso- 
ciali's and ein|il(iy(.''s, have but the one unaiihnous tribute to render 
to Ihi' (lonu slif virtues, and the gentlemanly qualities and accom- 
plisliiiiciils of this estimable morehant. New York already points 
wiili pride lo wliat he has done to beautify and enrich our Empire 
City, and, in aftiT years, there will be found enrolled upon the 
rerord of lier true and gifted men few names as bright as that of 
lloraee B. (.nailiii." 

46 



GEI^I<:iJAL ALFRED PLEASONTON. 



BY COI.DNKI, (!LIFFOKl) THOMSON. 

'',|?ipHE pul)j(!ct of tliis Hketch was Lorn in the District of 
*^-*^ (Joliinil)ia. His latlier was for many years First Auditor 
^'' '' of the Treasury, holding that responsible position under 
several successive administrations. He was a great admirer of 
our free institutions, a natural Republican, and a true and earnest 
patriot. His children v/ere reared in Washington City, where they 
not only received a liberal education, but, iinbibi'd from their 
parents those grand principles of patriotism and self-sacrificing 
devotion to country which have been so nobly exemplified iu the 
career of the General of whom we write. An incident which 
occun-ed during the war of 1822, and of which Mr. Pleasonton 
then auditor of the Treasury, was the hero, is deserving of a more 
permanent record than tlie flei^ting memory of man. It has often 
been told in print, we believe, hut with the omission of the name of 
the actual hero of the incident. When the British, during that 
war, were approaching Washington City, great consternation 
seized upon almost every one within the city limits. The old 
maxim that " self-preservation is the first law of nature," seeijis 
to be universally accepted as true, and to be generally acted upon. 
Amid the confusion incident to the knocking of an enemy at the 
gates of the city, thought was scarce given to the valuable records — 
the history of this great Republic — stored in the archives of the 
several departments. TIk; British were advancing, and how to 
save lite and personal property was the thought which possessed 
47 



2 ALI'MIKI) l- Lie A SON TON. 

till' mind ni' iioarly every pci'isou witliiii the city. Mr. Pleasouton. 
ill.' aiiilitor, however, seeing the general consternation, resolved 
U> do what lay in his power toward saving the records of thc^ Htatc! 
DcpailnHiit. He secured about a dozen wagons, and witii tlie 
assistance of the teamsters, soon loaded them with valuable records 
of State, which ho forthwith dispatched under whip and spur to 
Hagerstown, Maryland. As the last load was being sent off, Mr. 
rieasonton observed hanging upon the walls of the Department, 
in its solid frame of oak, the original Declaration of Independence. 
There was neither time nor opportunity to remove the massive 
frame from the wall, and no way to carry it, if it were removed. 
So, to save the document so dear to the heart of every American, 
Mr. Pleasontoncut it from its frame, hastily rolled it up, and sent it 
witli the other records of the Department, leaving the naked frame 
hanging upon (he wall, a puzzle to our British foes when tluy 
subsequently marched in. The records thus saved by Mr. Pleason- 
ton were, after the evacuation of tiie city by the British, returned 
to the Department. This original Declaration of Independence 
may now be seen in the Patent Office, bearing still the traces of 
having been cut from its original frame. Had it not been for this 
prompt action on the part of Mr. Pleasonton, this precious docu- 
ment, bearing the well-known autographs of those bold, brave men 
who first declared our national freedom, would to-day be gracing the 
walls of the Brilisli Museum instead of the Patent Office at 
Washington. 

General Pleasonton, after liaving recinved an excellent prelimi- 
nary education, was in Si'i.tomber, 1840, admitted as a cadet in 
tlie Military Academy at West Point. During tlie four years which 
he spent at the Academy, ho was brouglit into daily contact with 
men who have since niailo imperishable marks upon the ])agcs ot 
our history, among them President Grant. General Pleasonton 
was a vivacious and frolicsome cadet, but was at the same time a 
careful student. This is evident from the fact that in a graduating 
48 



A L V It K D P r. K A S O N T O N . ;j 

claws of twciity-live he received the seventh liouur. (jieucral Wiii- 
fiehl S. Hancock was in the same class. 

General Pleasonton, having graduated in 1844, was ininiudiatuly 
appointed Brevet iSecond Lieutenant of the First Dragoons, and 
ordered to duty with his Regiment on the frontier. After one 
year's service in the Indian country under Captain (General) Sum- 
ner, he was promoted to be Second Lieutenant of the Second Dra- 
goons, and, in 1646, participated with his regiment in the military 
occupation of Texas. The varying fortunes of a soldier found him 
in 1847-8 in Mexico, where he took an active jiart in nearly all of 
the engagements of that war. At the battles of Palo Alto and 
Resaca de la Palraa, his bravery and military capacity were con- 
spicuous, and won for him his brevet as First Lieutenant " for 
gallant and meritorious conduct." At the close of the Mexican 
War he found himself a First Lieutenant of his regiment. Second 
Dragoons, and once more campaigning against the Indians, Miis 
time in New Mexico. His name appears prominently in Uw. olU- 
cial reports of several severe skirmishes with Indians, and his ex- 
ecutive abilities as well as his fighting qualities having been dis- 
covered, he was appointed adjutant of his regiment. From 18.')2 
to 18.'56 he was employed in the frontier service, his field of duty 
varying from the plains of New Mexico to the swamps of Texas 
and Florida. In 1855, while serving in Florida as Assistant Adju- 
tant-General under General Harney, the famous Indian fighter, he 
received his commission as Captain of the Second Dragoons. He 
was desirous of at once returning to his regiment and taking com- 
mand of his company, but General Harney would not consent. 
Captain Pleasonton accordingly followed the fortunes of General 
Harney, participating in the celebrated Sioux expedition of 1855-6 
and in the Florida hostilities of 1856-7. Following this, he took 
an active part in the Kansas-Nebraska troubles, and, on their ter- 
minacion, he was ordered to the Pacific coast, where he served as 
Assistant Adjutant-General of the department of Oregon to July 
49 



5 ALFEED PLEAS05T0S, 

,vr.h. I'tf?). whirrh J/rin^ him doirn to the.perKid when the great 
st^/nii 'if T'-}nA\i<iu wd* neariy ready to hiust up^m the laad, 

Frwri the aU/re jscantr data — all that the limitts of this article 
will perr-iit — it will U; jk^ti tliat from the day of hi« leariDg West 
Point, in July, 1844, to July, 186<X Genenil Pleasonton had he*rn 
on ar.'tive duty all thr; time, and harl gaiiie^l, during the Mexican 
War and hix numerou* Indian Campaigns, a military knowledge 
cnUniinuA to Ije, an it was, f/f ineHtiraable value to his country. 

K^rtii/nirig from On^on in the Spring of 1861, when the cloud of 
UiMi'i'in liful utmnnuA gigantic proportions, he was imrncliately 
tumifgttA to t\u: ik-licate duty of organizing volunteers at W^iiming- 
t<^n, Delaware. His regiment, meantime, wa« on duty in Utah, and 
ItrMtilitif^ liaving V;en actually commenced in South Carolina, it 
[if'Msitiu; tuscjMiixry for the regiment t/) be brought East. General 
I'hrasont/jn was accordingly dispatehf^l t^j Utah, took command of 
the regiment, and at its iK^ad ma^le tliat long, tedious march from 
Ij tab to Washington City. But a few days were allowed for n:f8t 
and nrcuperation, for s<jldier8 were nee^lwl at the front. General 
I'Usisonton, commanding his regiment, was accordingly ordered to 
join Genf;ral McClellan's army. He did so, and was attached im- 
UKidiately to army hijiwh^uarters during the memorable Peninsula 
campaign. He participat<;d in all of the great battles of those 
t<;rrihle " Seven iJays," and was iK.-sides detailed with his trooi)erH for 
Mw>uting w;rviw!, which was particukrly diiiig<Tou.s in that country. 
It was he who, when the "change of base " was decided upon, with 
a Hrnall sf)iud of his troojfers, conveywl the intfilligence of General 
McClellan's jilans to the amimander of the gunboats on the James 
lliv<;r. A more hazardous enterprlHe than this was scarcely under- 
taken (luring the war. 

In Fehruary, 1862, General Pleasonton became Major of his r(!gi- 

ment, but his services during the Seven Days' Fighting had Ijceu ho 

coiiMpicuouH, imil he liiui shown such exceeding good judgment, as 

a reward for his lidelily he was made a IJrigadier-Gcnoral of Volun- 

59 



ALFRED FLEASONTON. . 5 

tcers. He was immediately assigned to the command of a brigade 
of cavalry. His first fighting with his brigade occurred at the 
second battle of Malvern Hill, where, although the cavalry engage- 
ment was not a heavj' one, General Pleasonton convinced his sub- 
onlinate as well as his superior oflacei-s that he knew how to handle 
cavalry and make it efiective. 

Up to this time the cavalry of our army, owing to its misman- 
iv'emeut, had been the laugliing-stock of ourselves andoiu- enemies. 
There had been no attempt at organization, but the troopers had 
been scattered by regiments, battalions, and companies throughout 
the army, and was used principally for orderly and guard duty. 
There had been no attempt to mass this arm of the service — to make 
regiments work harmoniously together — and the consequence was, 
that the cavalry had as little confidence in itself as did its revilers. 
But a new order of things was to dawn upon this brave corps, and 
to the executive ability of General Pleasonton is due the fact that 
eventually we had the best fighting cavalry in the world. They 
weiv never fancy-parade soldiers — they commenced at the wrong end 
of the book to learn tancy duty — ^but for sterling, honest, square 
fighting our volunteer cavalry never was excelled. 

When General Pleasonton took command of this brigade, the 
Ai-my of the Potomac, having completed its mistaken and disastrous 
retreat across the Peninsula, was lying upon the banks of the James 
River, unable to advance upon Richmond, and afraid to retire upon 
Washington. The retreat, hnvever, wtvs finally decided upon, and 
to General Pleasonton wj\s assigned the hazardous duty of covering 
its rear, and preventing the enemy from capturing its trains and 
munitions. That this was done successfully is a matter of hist^>- 
rv, but the judgment, the care, the anxiety, the danger of this ser- 
vice, can never be appreciat<?d except by those who ixirticipated m it. 
Sulfice to say, that the Army of the Potomac was eventually 
brought sjifely back to AVashmgton, and for his part in the move- 
ment, General Pleasonton received the commendation of his 
51 



6 ALFRED PLEA SON TON. 

superior officers, and had earned the entire contidence of his 
subordinates. 

Meanwhile, while these movements were taking place, the enemy 
had fallen on General Pope's small army in front of Washington, 
and after several days of stubborn and gallant fighting on the part 
of Pope, his army was forced back, beaten and disorganized, to the 
defences of Washington, while Lee, with his rebel hordes, swarmed 
across the Potomac, invaded Maryland, and threatened Pennsylva- 
nia. The authorities at Washington were thrown into confusion; 
hesitancy, fear, and indecision prevailed in their councils, and the 
first great crisis of the war was upon us. 

The first thing done was to dispatch General Pleasonton with his 
handful of cavalry, up into Maryland to watch the enemy and to 
protect the country. Kebel cavalry, well mounted and organized, 
with the famous J. E. B. Stewart as their leader, were pillaging the 
farmers right and left. General Pleasonton soon came upon them, 
fought them day by day, three and four times a day, drove them 
from every position, and whipped them in every encounter. He as- 
certained, and kept his superior officers advised of, the movements 
of the main body of the enemy, and the result of his campaign and 
his observations was the great battle of Antietam, wherein a victory 
for our arms was gained which sent a thrill of joy to the heart of 
every patriot throughout the world, removed the clouds of despond- 
ency which had gathered at the North, and restored confidence iu 
the ultimate success of our arras. 

The cavalry engagements, not counting the running fights and 
skirmishes of General Pleasonton's command during this campaign, 
may be enumerated as follows : Poolsville, Burnsville, Sugar Loaf 
Mountain, Frederick City, South Mountain, Catoctin Pass, Boons- 
boro, Keadysville, Antietam. 

In the great battle of Antietam, General Pleasonton's cavaliy 

(increased now to eighteen regiments), together with his batteries 

of horse artillery, occupied the centre of the line, which was the 

52 



ALFRED PLEASONTON. 7 

heights each side of the Sharpsburg road. On his left was Burn- 
side, and on his right Hooker, Sumner, and Franklin. At one time, 
when the battle raged fiercest, and both wings of our anny were 
engaged, the enemy had withdrawn all his troops from Sharpsburg 
and sent them into the fight on either wing. Pleasonton saw here 
his opportunity to pierce the rebel center with his cavalry, and by 
attacking each flank of the enemy in succession, scatter and demor- 
alize his entire force. He hastily wrote to General McClellan asking 
permission to do this, but was denied on the ground that there was 
no infantry in the centre to support him, and thus one of the grand- 
est opportunities of the war was lost. 

After the battle of Antietam, the ciivalry had a sharp little fight 
at Sliepaidstown, wherein a large number of prisoners were caj)- 
tured. Shortly afterwards. General Pleasonton made a raid to Mar- 
tinsburg, where he succeeded in releasing a large number of Union 
prisoners, who had been captured in Pennsylvania by the rebels. In 
September, 1862, General Pleasonton was brevetted Lieutenant- 
Colonel in the regular army " for gallant and meritorious services at 
the battle of Antietam." 

In October, 1862, while the Army of the Potomac was encamped 
about the battle-field of Antietam, the rebel cavalry made a raid 
around the entire army. After they had got well iuto our lines, 
General Pleasonton was sent in pursuit, and made, on this occasion, 
the greatest march ever made by cavalry. He followed the rebels 
as closely as he could, they having the start by a number of hours, 
and, finally, after cros;sing the mountains and marching one hun- 
dred miles inside of twenty-four hours, he came up with the enemy 
just as he was ciossing Monocacy Ford, and getting away. General 
Pleasonton attacked" him at once, and, although his command was 
exhausted, succeeded in driving him back three miles, where he ac- 
complished his crossing at another ford, evading, in so doing, a di- 
vision of infantry which had been sent to guard the river at that 
point. 



8 ALFHED PLEASONTON. 

The Army of the Potomac, heaving allowed the rebel army to es- 
cape after Antietam, and having taken a long rest, at last, in 1862, 
started in pursuit. General Pleasonton, with his cavalry, took the 
advance of the army, and during its movement from Antietam, 
Maryland, to Fredericksburg, Virginia, was constantly in pursuit of, 
and harassing the enemy, at the same time covering the flanks autl 
rear of our army. Skirmishes were every-day occurrences, some- 
times two, three, or four of these happening within twenty-four 
hours. Frequently these skirmishes amounted to serious engage- 
ments, M'herein the cavalry and horse artillery of both armies were 
engaged for hours at a time. Such were the fights at Aldie, Mid- 
dleburg, Unlonville, Upperville, Barber's Cross Eoads, Corbin's 
Cross Roads, etc. In all these our cavalry was successful, gaining 
such decisive victories as to win the applause of the entire army. 

At the battle of Fredericksburg, General Burnside commanding 
the army, the cavalry took little part, being simply held in readi- 
ness to pursue the enemy when he should retreat from Fredericks- 
burg. Unfortunately, he did not retreat, and the army went into 
winter quarters. 

The battle of Chancellorsville followed in May, 1863. It was 
here that Stonewall Jackson made his famous flank movement, at- 
tacked the 11th corps, and scattered it like chaff before the wind. 
Jackson was in full pursuit of the flying 11th when he was opened 
on by General Pleasonton, who had hastily collected twenty-two 
guns, and placed them in a commanding position. Three times the 
rebel masses charged these guns, and three times were they repulsed 
by the terrible discharges of double-shotted cannister which Pleas- 
onton poured into them. When finally the enemy retired, it was 
found that the slaughter in their ranks had been fearful. It was at 
about this time that Stonewall Jackson was killed, and it is claimed 
by officers of General Pleasontou's command, that it was his can- 
nonading which killed him. Had the rebels that evening gained 
the position held by Pleasonton, the Army of the Potomac would 
54 



ALFRED PLEASON TON. 9 

have been at their mercy, and could liave been destroyed in detail. 
It was admitted at the time that it was saved through the judg- 
ment and energy of General Pleasonton, and the Congressional 
Committee on the Conduct of the War, after having taken testi- 
mony relative to tliis campaign, report as follows regarding General 
Pleasonton : — 

" The giving way of the right, left General Sickles in a verv exnu.M'.l nnd rritical con- 
dition. The enemy, under Jackson, continued to advance attr, |i:. in-i-hirlceu troops 
until checked hy General Pleasonton, who had collected and 1 ^ i : ; , | . 1 1 i, in some 
artillery for that purpose. Although a cavalry oflHcer, he h ,..: : i,, , 1 lillury with 
exceeding great judgment and effectiveness. His skill, energ-,, .Luiii:;, aal ,,rumptness, 
upon this occasion, contributed greatly to arrest the disaster whicli for a time threatened 
the whole army. His conduct upon this and many other occasions marks him as one 
of the ablest generals in our service, and as deserving of far higher consideration than, 
for some cause, he appears to have received."— .Bgior/ of (he Commitke on the Conduct of llie 
War, 1865, Vol. i. p. xlvi. 

As a reward for his brilliant services at Chancellorsville, General 
Pleasonton was immediately afterwards assigned to the command of 
the cavalry corps. He worked day and night to place it in the hio-h- 
est state of excellence, and was rewarded for lus efforts by findino- 
himself in command of the best cavalry organization ever known in 
this country. 

In June,1863, it became evidentto GeneralHooker commandino- the 
Army of the Potomac, that the enemy contemplated another raid into 
Pennsylvania. General Pleasonton was directed to ascertain the 
facts. He learned that Lee was massing his troops near Culpepper 
and he determined to make a reconnoissance in force. Accordingly, 
on the 9th of June, he crossed the Rappahannock with his entire 
cavalry corps, at three different fords, the upper one being known as 
Beverly Ford. His arrangements were so quietly made that his 
whole command were across the river by daylight, and in the camps 
of the rebel cavalry before they were awake. He captured at the 
very outset a large number of prisoners, and many documents be- 
longing to the rebel General Stewart. These papers, which revealed 
the whole purpose of the rebel army, were immediately sent to Gen- 
eral Hooker. Tha rebels, after being so unceremoniously aroused 
from their slumbers, fell back about three miles on their infantry 
55 



10 ALFRED PLEASONTOU. 

supports. Plcasontoti followed, and tiie fiercest cavalry encounter 
of the war occupied almost the entire day. There were probably 
15,000 mounted men on each side, supported by their artillery, en- 
fjaged throughout the day, and the enjjagement was one brilliant 
series of bold and dashing charges, by first one side and then the 
other. Many a brave man went down that day in hand to hand 
contests, and victory seemed ever changing from one side to the 
other. Finally, Pleasonton penetrated their lines sufficiently 
to discover the whole army massed near Culpepper, and to learn that 
this horde was to start on the following day for a raid into Penn- 
sylvania. As the day drew to a close, Pleasonton withdrew his 
troops across the river. The next day the Army of the Potomac 
took up the line of march toward Washington, but the rebel army 
was too serioiisly injured by the fight of the day before to break 
camp. General Hooker was thus given a start of two days, which 
resulted in giving us that glorious victory at Gettysburg. 

Following the Beverly Ford fight came immediately the Gettys- 
burg camjiaign, and for six weeks the cavalry were engaged day 
and night in covering the advance and protecting the flanks of our 
army. Aldie, Upperville, Unionville, Middleburg, etc., again 
witnessed sharp encounters between the cavalry forces of the two 
armies. Our cavalry was essentially what military writers say 
it should be, viz., " the eyes and ears of the army." Every move- 
ment of the enemy was communicated by Pleasonton to Hooker, 
who was thus enabled to out-general General Lee, as he did, most 
effectually. 

After Beverly Ford (June 22, 1863), General Pleasonton was 
commissioned a Major-General of Volunteers. 

The battle of Gettysburg followed, the cavalry holding positions 
on the flanks of the army and being constantly engaged. After 
the battle, the cavalry was (very tardily) sent in i)ursuit of the de- 
moralized enemy, and rendered its account of operations by turning 
in prisoners by the thousands, and guns and numitions of war of 
56 



ALFRED PLEASONTON. 



value. Once more the enemy retired to Virgim'a, followed 
by the Army of the Potomac, now commanded by General Meade. 
Again, oiir cavalry paid its respects to the towns of Aldie, Middle- 
burg, Unionville, Upperville, etc, having severe engagements in 
the same old series of gaps in the mountains. Arriving back near 
Culpepper, the army rested for several weeks, after which the cavalry 
won new laurels by its brilliant succession of engagements in the ad- 
vance to a line beyond Culpepper. General Pleasonton here received 
his brevet as Colonel in the regular army "for gallant and merito- 
rious services at the battle of Getty, burg." A retreat of our army 
from Culpepper to Centerville gave General Pleasonton an oppor- 
tunity, while covering the rear of the army, to show still further 
the fighting capacity of his cavalry, a sequence of engagements oc- 
curring, commencing at Brandy Station and continuing in the 
shape of a running fight till Centerville was reached. 

General Pleason ton's services with the Army of the Potomac 
were now brought to a close, for reasons to be mentioned hereafter, 
and he was ordered to the Department of the Missouri, where, it 
was supposed, the war was ended. Several months of idleness fol- 
lowed, when suddenly the rebel General Price invaded the State for 
the second and last time. General Pleasonton was placed in com- 
mand of three brigades of cavalry with which to drive Price from 
the State. He very soon brought on an engagement with the rebel 
force, and soon had Price retreating. A brilliant series of engage- 
ments followed, the enemy trying to get away and Pleasonton 
striving to bring on a general eng gement. Finally, at the cross- 
ing of the Marais des Cygnes river, the enemy was brought to a 
stand on the open prairies. Pleasonton no sooner discovered that 
they wanted fight than he prepared to give it to them. His com- 
mand was speedily formed, and charging down at the galop upon 
the rebels. It took but a few mimsnta to d33ide the matter, fjr 
Pleasonton's troopers, West as at the Exst, were victorious. The 
results of that one charge were eleven ha idrel prisonsrs, iniludlng 
57 



12 ALFRKD ri>EASONTO N. 

Generals Marmacluke and Caljcll, seven pieces of artillery, and 
horses and baggage-wagons in unlimited numbers. This ended the 
campaign, the rebels being utterly routed, and getting out of the 
Stale by detachments and small s(|uads. For this campaign Gen- 
eral Pleasonton was brevetted "Brigadier-General United States 
Army, March 13, 1865, for gallant and meritorious services during 
the campaign against the insurgent forces under the rebel General 
Price, in Missouri." 

Subsequently, General Pleasonton was placed in command of the 
Department of Wisconsin and Minnesota, which position he held 
until his resignation was accepted, January 15, 1866. At the close 
of the war he was brevetted Major-General United States Army, 
"for gallant and meritorious services in the field during the 
rebellion." 

General Pleasonton, during the rebellion, was, at all times and 
imder all circumstances, essentially a "figliting general." His 
voice, both in the councils of war to which he was called and in 
private consultation, was always for the adoption of the most vigor- 
ous measures to crush out rebellion. He believed that as the rebels 
had appealed to the arbitrament of the sword, they should be sub- 
dued by the sword. Although a graduate of West Point, he never 
entertained those prejudices against volunteers so common among 
regular officers. On the contrary, he always had the utmost confi- 
dence in the ability of his troops to whip " those bucks" (his term 
for rebels in his front. This expressed confidence in his troops gave 
them confidence in him, and they were always ready and willing to 
go where he told them to go. It was this desire to push matters 
at all times that caused his removal from the Army of the Potomac. 
He was too old and too good a soldier to criticise the action of his 
superiors unless compelled to do so. But after General Meade's 
lamentable failure at Mine Run, and his subsequent shameful retreat 
from Culpepper to Centerville, the Congressional Committee on the 
Conduct of the War saw fit to institute an investigation into the 
58 



ALKKEI) I'f. RASONTON. ]3 

manner in which General Meade's campaign had bsen conducted. 
Among the witnesses called to testify regarding the matter were 
Generals Pleasonton, Sykes, French, Newton and others. General 
Pleasonton's testimony was to the effect that General Meade bad 
shown great incompetency in not pursuing Lee after Gettysburg ; 
in not attacking him at Falling Waters, but allowing him to 
escape without even a skirmish ; in the lamentable faihire at Mine 
Run ; and in the shameful retreat from Culpepper to Oenterville. 
This testimony was corroborated by Sykes, Newton, and several 
others. The Committee on the Conduct of the War immediately 
recommended the removal of Meade and the appointment of another 
officer. The military and political influence of General Meade, 
however, was sufficient to retain him in command of the army, and 
he forthwith had all the officers who had testified against him 
assigned to other fields of duty. It was tliought that he had suc- 
ceeded in burying them effectually, but the campaign in Missouri 
gave Pleasonton new laurels, and Newton won others in Sherman's 
army. 

A strong characteristic of General Pleasonton is his executive 
ability. Whatever he takes hold of he endeavors to improve. This 
is what gave him the best cavalry organization in the country. Ho 
did not believe that a General's duty consisted simply in fighting 
his troops successfully. On the contrary, the details of p.-ovisioning, 
mounting, clothing, and making his men comfortable in cimp, occu- 
pied his entire time. He was careful to surround himself with com- 
petent staif officers, and hold them to the strictest accountability. 
He could be severe and indexible when necessary, and officers who 
neglected their men or animils were pretty sure to hear from liim. 
The troops felt that while he was in command, their rights and their 
comfort would be looked after, and hence they soon learned to love 
him. He was the Seydlitz of the American army. 

The qualities which made him successful as a soldier, rendered 
him equally so in the civil service of the government. He was ap- 
59 



U A L F R E n P L E A S N T N . 

pointed, by President Grant, Collector of Internal Revenue for the 
Fourth District of New York, and B3 discharged the duties of that 
ofBce as to make his transfer a matter of rejret to the taxpayers. 
lie was assigned to the Tliirty-second District of New York, the 
largest in the country, where he became equally popular. His col- 
lection of taxes was made with promptness, and his returns to the 
Department were always made before the expiration of the time al- 
lowed. This made him a f\ivorite with the Department, and wm- 
placed to his credit, when his name was mentioned for Commissioner 
of Internal Revenue. His appointment to the latter position, re- 
cently made, appears to give universal satisfection. 

General Pleasonton is about forty-seven years of age, unmarrii'd, 
of slight figure, light complexion, and light hair. His large dark 
eyes are his most striking feature ; ordinarily these have a mild and 
pleasant look, but under excitement become piercingly brilliant. 
His bearing is at all times dignified, while he is pleasant and affible 
to all. He makes warm friends wherever he goes. His appearance 
does not indicate a remarkable man by any means, but military 
critics who have studied his career, and are familiar with his ideas 
on military subjects, have pronounced him " a decided military ge- 
nitis." If success can be taken as an indication of genms, the hun- 
dred and more successful engagements which Geiieral Pleasonton 
has directed should certainly stamp him as such, 
60 





^/^/^ C^ (^^•^^^- 



JOHN COCHRANE. 

rffi^^"'^ gentleman, some of the more important passages of 
{0 whose hfe are the snlyect of this sketch, is a native of 
the State of New York. Tlie conntry residence of his 
father, Walter L. Cochran, at Palatine, in Montgomery County, 
is the place of his nativity. The fiimily removed while he %vas 
yet a child to Utica, in Oneida County, where much of his 
youth was spent. From his lather's side General Cochrane 
derives a portion of the energy and action which characterize 
the Scoto-Irish race of the North of Ireland, whence his 
great-grandfather, in tlie early part of the eighteenth century, 
came to that part of Tennsylvania, in the county of Chester, 
called after him, Cochranville. His grandfather. Doctor John 
Cochran, left the paternal mansion in the troubled state of pub- 
lic alfairs, and subsequently was a surgeon in the Arniv of 
Inde"i)endence. 

His marriage with Gertrude, the sister of General Philij) 
Scluiyler, of Revolutionary fame, connects General Cochrane, in 
kin, with that tamily ; ■with the Hamiltons, the Van Eensselaers, 
and with some of tlie principal families in the State of New 
York. His grandfather subsequently, became Surgeon and tlie Di- 
rector-General of the Hospitals of the Northern Department of 
the United States. His fiither having married Cornelia, tlie sister 
of Gerrit Smith, unites him, on the mother's side, in con- 
sanguinity with another distinguished lineage, including the 
Livingstons, the Cadies, the Lents, and with some of the 
oldest and best blood in that part of Putnam County aljout 
Tappan Sea. His earlier years were occupied with the cares 
of an education, furnished from his fatlici-'s frugal means, 
and limited to the studies which the ordinary Eiiirlis)i schools of 
Gl 



tlie country then ullordud. It was amid the scenes wliiuh nature 
with lavisii iiand disphiys in Western New York, that the youth of 
(icncral (.ochi-ano was speut. Unquestionably, the expanse of liill 
anil \ alley w liicli lies in the various beauty of American scenery, 
(in liiitli .sidrs of the Mohawk Kivcr, where it bounds Montgomery 
and di\idcs Oneida County, generously influenced the formation of 
his early character. Its submission to the influence of more rugged 
scenes, was postponed to a somewhat later date, when, in the 
household and tuition of his uncle, Gorrit Smith, at Peterboro, he 
traversed the abrupt hills and picturesque vales of Madison County. 
During this while were growing in the boy the qualities which were 
to distinguish the man. His naturally studious habits increased 
his information with store of Greek and Latin, and imbued his form- 
ing mind with both reflnement and taste. At the age of eighteen, 
he graduated from Hamilton College. Having acquired, by a course 
(if tliri'c years' diligent preparation, the profession of the law, he 
mull rwout the vicissitudes of its practice for a livelihood, successively 
at Oswego, Schenectady, and in New York City. It was in this 
last city that, in the year 1845, he more systematically entered cm 
the career which, thus far tln-diigh life, he has pursued. The courts 
opened to his successful etiurts. With unflagging application 
and laudable zeal, he devoted laborious vigils to the cultiva- 
tion of his profession. His naturally fine oratorical power.s 
contributed to his success, and, at the end of his flrst year, his busi- 
ness was established upon a basis broad, lucrative, and secure. I!ut 
the disposition to speculate upon general subjects, and to harangue 
audiences, which had been perceptible in the bo}', found irre- 
sistible attractions in New York. Accordingly, his legal routine 
soon began to be varied with concurrent political occupations, and 
his voice impressed with superior power large Democratic meetings. 
Chance having, at length, cast upon him the otHce of Surveyor of 
tlie Port, he was injuriously withdrawn thenceforth, comparatively 
from the active duties ,.f his yirol'essiou, and .ievoted to the more 
e.xciling, though let.s prolitalilepur.-.uit ofpolitic?. At the i!ar of New 
G2 



JOnNCOCIIRANE. ^ 

York, tlie forensic eloquence of (Tcneral Coclirane is not yet for- 
gotten ; and still, when lawyers, who frequented the courts witli him, 
indulge in professional reminiscences, they speak of the vigorous 
logic and the skilful elocution, which swayed judges and carried 
juries ; of the shai-p jest and the mirth that played and gleamed, 
when Jim Brady and Nat Blunt and John Cochrane, divided the 
terms between them. John Cochrane was not the inferior of 
the triumvirs, and, perhaps, for a sonorous, rapid, and sustained 
appeal to the passions, he was the superior of them. 

Nor were more lofty efforts wanting. When a force of oratory 
that recalled the ancient forum, swelled into eloquence, he bowed 
in equal homage audiences both of the gentle and the rude. 
Before a popidar audience he had no superior. His sweep of voice 
would arrest, at its wildest, the variable moh, and, impulsively 
careering to its very skirts, storm it into passion or calm it into 
more peaceful moods. 

It has been said that he is a born orator. If constitutional tem- 
perament, impressionable, nervous, and vigorous ; a various, fertile, 
and rapid intellectual movement; a graceful and imposing presence; 
a oopious diction, armed with forcible gesticulation ; and an inclina- 
tion, absolute and irrepressible, to the mighty truths which underlie 
human rights, constitute the panoply of a born orator, then General 
Cochrane is one. We introduce, in evidence that this is not simply 
panegyric, one from many similar contributions to contemporary 
magazines : 

"Mr. Cochrane is effective with a jury, as he makes an excellent 
speech. It is done with a great deal of ease, grace, and eloquence. 
He is well skilled in the use of his' certainly very fine oratorical ac- 
complishments, and he always turns them to the best purpose. In 
the statement of facts he is clear and accurate, and is excelled by few 
in fierceness of invective or tenderness of pathos. He becomes 
much absorbed, walks about, gesticulating freely, and speaking with 
exceeding volubility in language of the most choice, forcible, and 
appropriate description. At times there are outbursts of the liiglic.-,t 
G3 



unlur ol' floiiuL'iieo, accoiiii);iiiic'(l by most ellwtive f,'csturc8 mid 
iittituck'H, at wliich times lio liolds the tboliiigs of his licarcris in com- 
plete control. Always stiiiuilated by this condition of matters, he 
rises to grander flights of fancy, and must be regarded as an orator 
of the most iinished school. As a political speaker, lie is equally 
powerful. Fearless in liis declarations, calm ••iinidst .'ill opiKisitimi, 
scathing in his review of opposite party policy, and ihriUingly elo 
(|n(>nl, lie is a dangerous opponent. Tried in iniiiiv (•(nillicls, made 
wily ill a Idiii;- political career, lie is M'eli lillcd lor a .successful 
leader." 

W'iicn llic Conyeulion at llcrldnicr, in tlic month of October, 
18-17, signalled the Barnburner and llnnkci- schism in llie Demo- 
cratic party, the subject of our sketch aiipeared simultaneou.sly in 
tlu^ i:anil)urners' ranks, an advocate, and ultimately a leader. 

As his speech before (lie Convention demonstrates some of 
his mental characteristics, and cxeini>lilies, in the light of suiwe- 
quont events, not a little prescience in public all'airs, wo ju-o- 
duce an extract : 

"Has it never occurred to you, sir, how remarkable is the 
unity of that idea which promotes and controls all our jiolitical 
efforts? Freedom in all its phases pervades each distinctive 
article of our political creed. "Whether a removal of imposts 
exacts of the ruler freedom for the operations of commerce, or 
opposition to the exclusive privileges of chartered banks com- 
mands an unrestricted currency; whether the tenure of land or 
the fruition of wealth he the object of Ihe law, its structure 
and its spirit invite to the accoiniili.sluncnt of the largest liberty 
compatible with the social interest, and to tlu' indulgence of the 
• uiost, uniranimelled action consistent witli the public weal. 
' " r.ut more distinctly perceptible is this (ruth in the adoption, 
by uur faith, of the doctrine of human freedom. Other theories 
may fail and involve their infatuated victims in a common ruin; 
other provisions may i>rove both feeble and inadeipiate to the 
exigencies for which they are prepared; but this shall prevail 
64 



over Ikiliire and Iriiiniiili In fiucccss. Tim cvc (if an cxleiisivc; 
acquisition of con(iucrcd territory presents the occasion, and no 
time is more fitting than the present for puljlisliing and assert- 
ing this cardinal truth. Tlie influence of slavery operates in a 
triple direction — upon the master, upon the slave, and uiiou tlie 
interests of free laljor. 

"The most careless observoi- could not fail to have distin- 
guished in the vicious composition of the institution, its de- 
moralizing influences, and in the seared conscience and in<lni-:i 
ted heart of the slaveholder, its baleful effects. Nor need it 
be pertinaciously insisted how unfavorable to a just appreciation 
of human ecpiality, are the dispositions engendered, and the 
habits imposed by familiarity with the degradation and addiction 
to unlimited sway over the slave. Esteem for ecpial rights can 
no more exist in the matter, than a love for their perversion 
can aTiimate the heart of the slave; and the same fell system 
that depresses the one to hopeless bondage, elevates the other 
above amenability to law. 

"But these are influences, strictly confined to the immediate 
parties to the contracting pollution. The tliii'd, by its efleet 
upon free labor, denuinds more directly our serious consideration. 
I^'or the purposes of the subject, may we assume that in the 
iH"i;-ion of slaveiy, free labor will not compete with servile labor. 
Now, the country over which it is proposed to extend this 
blighting curse, comprises a territory interspersed with fertile 
lands, and reposing beneath all the varieties of the most salubrious 
climi's. Nont! will contend against the entrance into this do- 
main, as upon tb(t lands of their heritage, of the increasing 
army of frec-lalioi-crs of the North. But the introduction of 
slavery will virtnally exclude them; and each successive effort 
to enlarge the area of freedom is Jieccssarily followed by a 
closer stricture of the bonds, and a further extension of the in- 
fluences of its opposite;. 

"ThTs hour is fraui,dit with innncnces whieli are to operate 
CO 



through all time, on ;\i;cs unknown, and goneratinns iinlidrn. 
These principles, which wo have proposed and adapted as the 
guide of onr lives, are those winch shall llourisii when we are 
known no more; and in the long vista of receding years, 
when our children and our children's children, shall occupy these 
our places, yet other children, a glorious progeny, shall arise on 
freedom's soil to hless their lot, and to coniniemorate the virtues 
which iirescrved it free. Nor shall these fruits mature within 
iiur holders ahme. Other States are hastening within the expan- 
sive girdle of our common country. It is needless to conjecture 
how or when shall terminate the war that rages near our South- 
western hounds. Let limited annexation or total conquest occur, 
here or where they may, the result admits no doubt — the land 
whose shores are lashed by the waters of the Pacific, and laved 
by those of the Gulf, must ultimately bloom under the irriga- 
ting tide of Anglo-American immigration, bearing upon its bosom 
the inestimable boon of republican institutions. There is, indeed, 
as has been asserted by a pre-eminent statesman of the South, 
a mysterious sympathy between the States of our Union and 
those of Mexico — a sympathy which ever attracts the less toward 
its more civilized neighbor, the attraction of gravitation, which, 
as by natural, so by political law, impels the weaker into the 
iMulirace of the stronger, where every imperfection is neutralized, 
and any weakness is supplied by the strength of the united 
whole. To save this land from the .'^courge of slavery, from the 
malediction of the taslanaster, and from the agony of the slave 

to preserve it to fi-eedom, to fi-ee labor, and to God, is it that 

we have articulated a voice whose volume is penetrating every 
hamlet, proclaiming invincible and never-ceasing hostility to the 
extension of slavery." 

At the expiration of (ieneral Cochrane's term of Surveyor 
of the Port of New York, he was sent to Congress, r.s 
the representative for two ternis, of the Sixth Congressional Dis- 
trict, eomposed of the 11th, 15th. aiul I7th City AVards. Here 
G6 



.T O II N ( (] ( II R .V N K . 7 

his (lilii;-i>iicc and aptitude Id parliaiiieiitary liusiiiuss, were ol).scrverI. 
Land ivlunn. tiie ivvcmics, :iiul otlaT kindred subjects, shared 
liis attention witii his (hities as a leadcf. Wlicn, at the ;ii)proaeh- 
iiig end of the ;i.")th I'oiigress, in March, IftltJl, he ojiposed liiiii- 
self, thougli a Democrat, to the prevailin<); insanity, his voice 
most strongly apjiealed to tlie Southern nienibers to refrain 
their fratricidal hands from the Constitntion and Government. 
The Congress terniiiuited. Fort Snmter was taken ; and rebel- 
lion was inanguratcd. The loyal North convnlsively sprang to 
arms. Popular meetings of monster proportions, assembled at 
frequent intervals. The first, convened, in Ai)ril, at Union 
Square, covered acres of the city ground, and thrilled the peo- 
ple with patriotism. "We extract largely from General Cocli- 
rane's speech on this occasion, in illustration of his agency in 
the affairs of the day, and his relation to them : 

" Events of dire import signal to us the ajiproacli of war — not tlie 
war constituted of resistance to the hostile ti'ead of an invading foe, 
and laden with the consequences only, of foreign aggression resented 
and foreign attack resisted— but a wai' infiamed by the passions, 
waged by the foi'ces, and consisting of the conflict of citizens, 
brothers, and friends. It is true that the problem of the future 
must baffle the most comprehensive wisdom, and compel the patriot 
into painful anxiety for the fate that awaits us. Yet we are not for- 
bidden to extract from the past, whatever consolations rectitude of 
purpose and a discreet conduct allow, and to summon their inspira- 
tion to our alliance and aid. It is not my purpose, fellow-citizens, 
to weary you with the recapitulation of the party differences, the 
coiillict of which, while constituting our past political history, at 
the same time shaped the question, so long, so pertinaciously, and so 
fearfully debated between the North and South. I need not direct 
your attention to those acts, which seem necessarily to constitute 
the preliminaries to the bloody arbitrament that is upon us, and the 
consideration of which, however brief, cannot fail to manifest the 
patience and tbrliearance witli whidi conflict has been shunned, and 
G7 



8 JOHNOOCHKANE. 

tlie evils ot wai' soiiylit to be averted. JS' early all that rifcd Ije suU- 
luitted upon this point is directly pertinent to the recent and coer- 
cive attitude of the citizens, very generally, of the city of New York. 
Upon the revolutionary action of the seven Gulf States, there 
occurred here an excess of desire, that every honorable means should 
be employed, to induce their retention in the confederation of States 
of the Union. If this could not be attained, it was still hoped that 
a considerate policy might retain the border slave States, and thus 
possess lis of the means of an ultimate restoration to the Union, 
of its former integrity. Thus, though the property of the United 
States had been seized, its jurisdiction violated, and its flag assailed, 
yet it was, by ver^' many, still thought wiser to refrain from hostilitj', 
and to court renewed national harmony through the mildei- 
methods of conciliation and compromise. Accordingly, many, 
actuated by such motives, established themselves Urnily in the 
policy of such concessions as, satisfactory to the Union sentiment of 
the border slave States, would, in their opinion, recommend them- 
selves also to the judgment of the Northern people. I believe that 
a very large portion of our fellow-citizens entertained similar views, 
and were quite willing to advance towards any settlement of our 
sectional difficulties, not so much in the sense of remedial justice to 
the South, as in that of an eft'ectual method of restoring the Union. 
For myself, I may say that, while actuated by such views, I have 
never supposed that the requirements of the border slave States, 
would exact what a Northern opinion would not grant ; nor, while 
affirming my belief that Northern patriotism would resist the 
infraction of Southern rights, did I for an instant imagine that ] 
could be understood as including secession, and the seizure of the 
property of the United States among Ilium. "Whatever the Consti- 
tution has secured tu the South, tliat tliere has been an abiding 
wish throughout the North to (•iiiitlnii ; and, although there have 
been and are differences of opinion as to the extent of Southern 
constitutional rights, yet T have never understood the disciples of 
anv Northern political school, to advocate those that were not 
68 



JOHN C O ( 



affiniicd by its party plattbnii to be strictly of a constitutional 
character. But strenuous as were these efforts to disembarrass of 
coercion — even in tlie execution of the laws — the friendly inter- 
vention of the border slave States in behalf of a disrupted confede- 
racy, their authors have been baffled, and their dearest hopes extin- 
guished by the active hostility of South Carolina. Her attack 
upon Fort Sumter was simply an act of war. The right of 
property and the jurisdiction thereof, continued in the United 
States, and its flag denoted a so ereignty, perfect and unimpaired. 
(Applause.) The cannon-ball, which first visited its battlements 
in hostile career, violated that sovereignty and insulted that flag. It 
was the coercion which, at the North, had been deprecated for the 
sake of the Union, and suspended, that was thus commended by 
the South to the North. The ensigns of government, and the em- 
blems of national honor were systematically assailed ; and the 
adhering States were reduced to the attitude, and compelled to the 
humiliation of an outraged nationality. Nor was this all. Menaces, 
so authentic as to merit the attention accorded to facts, marked the 
national capital for attack. Hostilities, with this object, were con- 
certed against the Government, and received the open approbation 
of the revolutionary leaders. In truth, the scene of war against 
the States represented by the Government at "Washington, which 
opened with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, has gradually devel- 
oped into the fearful proportions of an organized invasion of their 
integral sovereignty. Such has been the gradual, nay, the almost 
imperceptible progress from initiatory violence to federal rights, to 
the levying of war upon the Federal Government. And now, fellow- 
citizens, it seems to me that no profound reflection is necessary to 
perceive that the posture of afiairs, which united so many Union- 
loving men of the North against a policy of coercion, supposed to be 
fraught with the danger of permanent dissolution, is not the same 
with that, which represents the seceded States, in open war to the 
Constitution and the Government. The considerations whicli depre- 
cated the coercion of the South, address themselves with equal force 
69 



10 J O H N C OC II li A N K . 

against the fKOivioii of the Ndrtli. Tliat, wliich wii:^ opposed be. 
cause of its anticipated injury to eiVurts at adjustment, becomes far 
more obiectionable, in its positive initiation of hostilities against the 
constitution and laws. The tramp of war is heard in our streets. 
The fearful note of preparation rises above the din of daily life, and 
mingles with our busy thoughts, the solemnities of approaching con- 
flict. Let us not deceive ourselves. It is no gala occasion — that 
which receives our attention. Confident as we are, many are the 
sad experiences which war reserves for those subjected to its stern 
necessities ; and ere the strife ceases, terminate as it may, we must 
expect the reverses which have generally characterized the experi- 
ence of all belligerents. But through all the coming scenes, there 
will expand the pervading sense of the rectitude of those who strive 
for the rights of government and of country — the comforting reflec- 
tion that, in a war which afflicts so many of our dearest affections, 
we, at least, were not the aggressors. Nor should a success produc- 
tive of subjugation of any portion of our fellow-citizens, be contem- 
plated among the possibilities of the future. The contest so unhap- 
pily inaugurated, is directed to the establishment of the authority 
of the Government, and the vindication of its flag. It ia to be hoped 
that, as for the attainment of such an object, men of all parties have 
disregarded political divisions, so that men without exception will 
accept the first opportunity to welcome returning peace, upon the 
basis of one constitution and one country. Still, if that national 
reconstruction, which unfortunately has hitherto baffled every pa- 
triotic and peaceful eflbrt, shall not be attainable by any other 
method, our resistance to aggression, now conducted to the issue of 
arms, will, at least, have asserted our national dignity, and have 
prevented the inexpressible humility of national dismemberment 
and desolation, accomplished at the expense of the degradation of 
the North. Should final separation prove inevitable, notwithstand- 
ino- every effort for a return to the peaceful repose of an \individed 
republic, we shall, at least, liave entitled ourselves to the invaluable 
self-respect, founded in the consciousness of laws maintained, and 
70 



JOHN f! O r II K A N E . 



11 



lienor vindicated. (Cheers^.) The snninions wliich tlie t-liief execnitive 
has proclaimed for military aid, has appealed to the patriotism of the 
entire North. As at a single bound, thousands have responded, and 
other thousands await the call wliich shall require them also to arm in 
the common cause. (Cheers.) I cannot find that the magistrate's 
power is to he circumscribed now by constitutional scruples, or 
restrained by the doubts of constitutional power. Tlie action which 
threatens the subversion of the Government is confessedly revolu- 
tionary, and avows its justification in the imprescriptable right of 
self-preservation. Now, I think that it cannot be questioned that 
an effort to overthrow a government by a portion of its citizens, on 
the plea of self-preservation, conclusively remits the government 
assailed, to resistance upon the same rights ; and that all means are 
justifiable for the suppression of revolution, which it is conceded 
may be employed in its behalf. Many of the Southern States, 
disregarding the fundamental law which united them under the 
government of the Union, have armed themselves against its con- 
stitution, and wage unprovoked war against its citizens. Tliey pro- 
pose thus, by an appeal to the transcendent law of nature — the law 
that human happiness and the safety of society, are the objects to 
■which all institutions and all governments must be sacrificed — to jus- 
tify their efibrts at revolution, and to disrupt the confederation. I do 
not perceive that the resistance of such an efibrt, is to be criticised in 
the spirit of strict constitutional construction ; but that the same 
law which guides the revolution, should, and must also apply to all 
efforts to oppose it, viz., the law which commands the employ- 
'ment of any force, amdin the l)est manner, calculated to repress the 
nnovement which menaces the happiness, and is ielieved to he de- 
structive of the safety of the people. I cannot doubt that, in case 
of an emergency, proportionately formidable, the whole body of the 
community threatened might, upon the plea of self preservation, 
arise in immediate resistance to the danger witliout reference to the 
pi-ovisions of constitutional law. Such an act would doubtless be 
referable to tlie magnitude of the danger, and be justifiable bv a 
71 



liiw iibuvo and hoyoiKl all eoiiipaclH wliatovcr. IJiit it is iieudless, 
fullow-t'itizens, to pursue this theiric further. Tho hour bears its 
events, and is fraught with its lessons. We ai'o in the midst ol' 
revolution — not the revolution of the rhetorician, invoked to swell 
his periods, and to impress an audience — but tho revolution of 
facts; the revolution of war. We have assembled to resist its wild 
career, and, if ])ossiblc, to restore a distracted country once more 
to the aulliority of law, and to the peace of orderly and constitu- 
tional govern nu'iit. To siu'li an effort we sunnnon the assistance of 
all good men. To such an effort mc Inini; our ]>arty predilections 
and ])olitical associations, and sacrifice tlieni all, in the presence of 
our countrymen, upon the altar ol' oni- coninion country. To such 
an effort we devote our energies and onr means, all the while hop- 
ing and acting for the restoration of peace and the reunion of a 
severed confederacy : but still remembering that, should the unhappy 
time arrive when final separation becomes inevitable, our affections 
and our efforts, are duo to the geographical section to which we be- 
long—that our future is inseparable from the future of the North. 
(Cheers.) In the meantime, the path of duty and honor conducts 
in but one direction — consists with but one course. It brings us, 
one and all, to the siipport of tho Government, the maintenance 
of the Constitution, and the execution of, the laws. (Apj)lause.) 
Thousands are they who tread therein, and their motto is our 
country, and our whole country — in every event, our country. 
(Loud cheering.) " 

Events thronged these days; sns^iense ruled the nights. Mailed 
feet trod tho hitherto peaceful land, and the et)nntry rallied to 
resist rebellion. 
t On the 11th day of June, 1861, General Cochrane received from 
the Secretary of War a commission to raise a regiment. He accord- 
ingly raised and eijnipped the First United States Chasseurs, and 
led them, as their colonel, to Washington, and thence, through 
some of the battle-fields of the war. 

On tho 13th day of Noviimlnr oi' this year, General, then 
72 



J () II N O O O II R A N K . 1 O 

Colonel Coc'liniue iiiado his celebrated kj>c'(K'1i for arming the .shi\es. 
It was bei'ore his regiment, in cauip, near Washington. The Secre- 
tary of War, Hon. Simon Cameron, was present, aj)proving. Both 
the Secretary and he had previously advocated tiie doctrine, on the 
occasion of a serenade to the former, at the Astor House, in New 
York City. Ihit this was the concerted occasion, to formally 
broach it to the country. Misfortunes were thickening. Vic- 
tory hovered, in susj^ense, over the opposing armies. Doubts 
began to chill the ardor, and cloud the thouglits of patriotic citi- 
zens. At such a juncture the speech was made. It was pi-omj)tly 
hailed as the keynote of the war; and, though temporarily impeded, 
it was ultimately accepted by the (lovci-iimeut, and carried into the 
lii'ld. We give an extract from it: . . . "in such a 
war, we are justified and bound to resort to every force w ithin our 
possession. Having opened Beaufort Port, we shall be able to 
export cotton bales, and thus supply the sinew.'* of war. Do 
you say that we should not seize the cotton 'i Nn ; xuu arc clear 
on this point. Suppose that munitions of war arc within your 
reach, would we not be strangely negligent did we not avail our- 
selves of the opportunity to use them? And now, suj)p(jse the 
enemy to be arrayed against you, would you squeamishly refrain 
from pointing against them your hostile guns? No ; that is your 
very object and intention. If, then, you open their ports, would 
seize their cotton, and destroy their lives, I ask you if you would 
not also arm their slaves? Whether you would not arm tluur 
slaves, and carry them in battalions against tlunr master.^? (Ke- 
ncwed and tumultuous applause.) If necessary to save this (Gov- 
ernment, I would plunge the whole country, black and white, into 

an indiscriminate sea of blood Let us not be 

put aside by a too great delicacy, soldiers ; you know no siu-Ii tem- 
porizing as this. You have arms in your hands, and th(>y arc 
placed there for the purpose of exterminating the (uicnn in arms 
against your (Tovernment, if he will not submit. If he will not sul>- 
mit, take (everything of his in vonr way — cotton, j)rop(Ml\- wherever 
73 



( Iiiiniciise applause.) " 




, ('<i!oiu<l Coelirane rcceiviMl tli 


c ciJin- 


II slu.uld l,e <,l,s,.rve(l. tliat 


unwill- 


V r,ivv..|. iic.-ordfil imiiscriiii 


inatdy 



1 I .1 (I n N (' (>(' II i{ A N !•: . 

^ou iua_y timl it. Take tlic slave; lii'sUivv liiiii as _yoii please ; on 
the iioii-sla\cli(il(ler il' vou wish. Do to them, as they would do to 
lis. Raise up a party among them, against the ahsent slaveholder, 
and, if ihi- lie insullicient, talfe the slave hy the hand,2)lace a mvs- 
kil ill it, iiiitl hill him, in Go(Vs name, stril-e for his own liberty, 
ami Hull <;/■ the luniiiui ni,r. 
On the 17th (.f Jnly, ISC, 
mission o[ r>rii;adier-(ienc>ral 
ing to eoNH'i- with an i-mp 
to all applieants at the end oi' the war, the substantial honor of a 
Hrigadier's Connnission, the Cieneral refused either to solicit the 
favor or to assert his right. The e\]>osures of campaign life having 
seriously and, it M'as feared, pi'rmaneutly disabled him, he tendered 
his resignation, which, upon the uniloi'in iH'cominendation of the 
medical stalf of the army, was a.repted by the President. He lay 
then, with his troops, in camp at Kabnouth, and took his larewell 
of them ill the following address: 

•• llnADiju.utrKits Fiitsr liiiidADK, TniiiD Div., Sixth Coups, 

AitMY OK THE Potomac, February 27, 1803. 
" Hoi,iiii:i;s oK Tui.: First Bkigadk : 

" My coruiii.nnd over you has terminated. Sei'ious physical 
maladies, indiici'd by the unaecustomed exposure of two years 
of military life, i-oiistantly in the cani]., on the inaivh, or in the 
Held, have imlitted me, now, Ibr the duties of ;in active campaign, 
for this reason, my resignation, which severs my eonnectiou with 
the sei\ ice. Ihit I should trample upon the most sacred emotions, 
did I depart from aiiiong j'ou in silence. We began our march, 
and we have traversed our fields together. Where we lay down, 
one sky covered and one flag protected us; when we .irose, it 
was to the notes of the same reveille. Your toil has iieeu my 
toil, and your battles mine. To Fair Oaks, i\Jalveni Hill. An- 
tietam, Williamsport, and Kiv.lerick.shnrg. oiir memories revert 
together as to tields hallowed by the brav.'ry and by the blood 
of our brigade. Soldiers' graves are there, tilled with our dead; 
74 



JOHN COC II BANE. 15 

and we, their survivors, bear tlieir names upon our heai'ts, where, 
too, their praises are inscribed. 

"Soldiers! for your country liave you borne all, perilled all, 
suffered all; and for that country will you .still bleed and endure, 
till you have seized from the teeth of this monstrous rebellion 
the dear inheritance of your children — one name, one country, 
one home. I shall not be with you, nor sliall I strike at your 
side. But, wherever, in other fields, bending beneath grievous 
burdens, I may weary or faint, one thought of you, brave hearts, 
shall revive resolution and reinvigorate effort in our common 
cause. 

" You are of the Army of the Potomac. High hopes rest upon 
you, and fervid prayers supplicate your success. Objects of hope 
and subjects of prayer, comrades in arms, your future is fraught 
with the destinies of the coming generations. 

" Though sometimes checked, yet never defeated — though often- 
times baffled, yet never beaten, the victories of your past are still 
within hail of your victories to come. 

" Your country's cause rests upon your arms, and your stan- 
dards will yet be gilded by the day of its success. 

" Soldiers, farewell !" 

The war lingered with fluctuating fortune. Party rivalry was 
infused with rancor; intrigue was busy with the machinery of 
compromise; and an uncertain cloud of fears and tremblings en- 
veloped the country and darkened the prospect. 

General Cochrane's return to civil life was opiiortune and 
beneficent. He contributed a vigor, of both presence and voice, 
to the numerous public meetings which served, at this period, 
to revive and sustain the confidence and patriotism of the people. 
He impulsively severed the ties which had connected him with 
the Democratic party, whose policy now began to be painfully 
directed against the continuance of the war. The Union party 
presented him, as a War Democrat, to the suffrages of his fellow- 
citizens, for the office of Attorney-General of the State. He was 
75 



1 (? J O II N C O 11 B A N E . 

triuiuj>li;iiitly uk-etcd ; aiul, in tlie course of his otliciiil term, lie 
is said to have displayed, in a remarkable degree, that power of 
analysis and affluent rhetoric, generally regarded as the character- 
istics of his eloijuence. 

Abraham Lincoln's first Presidential term was now approach- 
ing its close, and the country began to speculate for a snccessor. 
Those of the Union party with radical tendencies, assembled at 
Cleveland, Ohio, on the 31st day of May, 186i, and, having 
nominated (uiaral John 0. Fremont for the Presidency, placed 
General Cocin-ane on the ticket for Vice-President. He accepted 
the nomination. Ihit iVbraham Lincoln having been, in the mean- 
time, renominated at Baltimore, with Andrew Johnson for Vice- 
President, it soon became evident that the continuance of the 
Cleveland ticket in the field would, by dividing the Union party, 
ensure the success of the Democratic ticket nominated at Chicago. 
Both General Fremont and General Cochrane, therefore, thought 
that it became them to withdraw their names; which General 
Cochrane did in a letter addressed to the Wai- Democrats of 
the United States, in wliich he aaid: 

" The principles whicli dictated my acceptance of the nomina- 
tion approved themselves at the time to very general regard, and 
have since, in my o}>inion, lost none ol' their original virtne or ' 
vigor. Their i.ractical ,i scrtion was ivquirod, it was thouglit, hv 
the success witii which ptTsonal liliorty liad been assailed, and llu' 
extremities to which constitutional freedom had been rciincnl. 
Not the least inducement, howevci-, was the consideration tliat tlic 
redress of grievances in tiic manner proposed could not intcrrui)!. 
but would entirely consist with a vigorous prosecution of the war. 
It certainly was not contemplated that tlie success of tiie candidate- 
should, in any degree, impair or endanger that most important part 
of the platform, which resolved : ' that the rebellion must be sup- 
pressed by force of arms, and without compromise." .... 

"Tlie success of the Chicago nominees would, at the best, hnt 
place in power a party of divided counsels, of nncertain policy, and 
76 



JOHN COCHRANE. 17 

of indecisive action. Clearly, such an event would bo at the fur- 
thest from 'a suppression of the rebellion by force of arms and 
without compromise.' 

" The Baltimore platform, however objectionable at other points, 
is unimpeachable at this ; and, while it foils- to vindicate personal 
rights, and the rights of free speech and the press ; it does not tail 
to refer the re-establishment of constitutional liberty and the restor- 
ation of the Union to the arbitrament of arms, in which, and in 
which alone, the national safety is to be found. "We stand within 
view of a rebellion suppressed — within hail of a country reunited 
and saved. War lifts the curtain and discloses the prospect. War 
has given to us Atlanta, and war offers to us Eichmond. 

" Shall we exchange the proffered victory for a ' cessation of hos- 
tiHties?' No! As we fought at the beginning, we should fight to 
the end ; and, when rebellion shall have laid down its arms, may 
we peacefully reconstruct whatever the war for the Union shall be 
found to have spared. ' Lay down your arms,' then, as it was at 
the commencement, so it is now, all that is demanded by loyal 
Americans of their rebellious brothers. 

" I would certainly prefer that the American people could be 
brought to a vote on the several propositions peculiar to the Cleve- 
land platform. The right of asylum ; the one-term policy ; the 
direct vote of the people for their national chief-magistrate ; the 
Monroe doctrine ; the confining exclusively to the repi-escntatives 
of the people in Congress the reconstruction of States ; and the 
amendment of the Federal Constitution to prohibit slavery, are 
principles of primary magnitude and importance. But before all 
these is our country. It is menaced by rebellion. Loyal armies 
alone protect it. Should those armies retreat, and our protection 
be withdrawn ? Or should they advance, and our safety be estab- 
lished ? Shall there be peace through the concessions of politicians, 
or peace through the action of war? That is the question. 

" Peace and division, or war and the Union. Other alternative 
there is none. And as I still am of the mind tliat once led me to 
77 



18 JOHNCOCHEANE. 

the iield witli t!ie soldiers of the liepublic, I eami,.t now hold a 
position whieli, by dividing, hazards the success of all tJiosr who, 
whatever tlieir differences at other points, agree, as upon tlie 
question of first consequence, that the restoration of the Union 
cannot be effected without tlie uninterrupted continuation of the 
war." 

General Cochrane's oi-atorical efforts have not been, as might 
be surmised, exclusively confined to the rostrum or tlie forum. 

The frequent demands of literature upon his attention, have not 
been altogether disregarded. 

Perhaps a speech, of more classic purity and Horatian terseness, 
is not recorded, than that in which, on the 4th of July, 1858, he 
transferred from the custody of New York to Virginia, the remains 
of James Monroe. That the reader may enjoy its perusal, we 
venture thus far to extend this brief biographical notice : 

" It is now more than thirty years since a venerable stranger 
arrived in the city of New York. Tlie storms of State had hent 
his form, and private care was written on his brow. Released 
from the burden of official responsibilities, which he had never 
shunned, he sought in our scenes tlie tranquillity he craved so 
much. From this retreat, he securely contemplated the eventful 
vicissitudes of the world he had left, nor once regretted its honors 
nor missed its applause. A domestic circle opened at his approach : 
kindred hearts cherished him ; and the slope of his life gently 
declined, amid troops of friends, to the music of household asso- 
ciations. All revered him : sauntering steps quickened at his 
ajipearance : the citizen paused in the way, and tlie stranger in the 
gate, to look where passed James Monroe. It is thought by our 
city, an honor thus to have sheltered the gathei-ing years of one 
who had been the fittii President of the United States. A short 
time, however, passed, and the familiar form was seen no more. 
As if commissioned, on the anniversary of our country's independ- 
ence, to bear a nation's gratitude into the Presence on High, his 
si>irit burst its thraldom in tiuit jubilee of freedom. lie was 
78 



JOHNCOCHRANE. LV 

mourned as only the good are mourned. He lias never been i'uv- 
gotten. Earth has been strewed with the recurring tril)ute of 
more than twenty-five years of decay, and still the public heart has 
kept sentry at his grave. Seasons have come and gone, moons 
waxed and grown dim, and, while all was changing, still uneiianged 
i^as been the memory of N"ew York, that low upon its lap, was laid 
the head of James Monroe, of Virginia. Inviolate lias been held 
the sacred charge. It is true that his deeds live after him, a com- 
mon heritage for all ; but his body descended to the tomb to await 
there, tidings from the State he loved so well. Those tidings came, 
and our city paused ; they came, and the busy mart was hushed. 
It was the demand of the father for his son ; it was the voice of the 
mother seeking her child. Men's hearts were touched by the- 
appeal, and the very dead was stirred to filial sympathy. We 
have removed him from his place of early sepulture, and have borne 
his body hither, Virginians, to you. As we have come, the minute- 
gun has announced to land and sea the sad funereal transit, and the 
nation vails its standards to our solemn rites. And it is meet that 
it should be so. By no sacrilegious summons, but with a reverent 
awe has the silence of a former age been broken — the repose of its 
mighty dead disturbed; and the memory of the sage, like the lights 
of the tomb of Terentia, has diffused a genial radiance abroad. A 
general attention has been concentrated upon the revelation. The 
sacred truths of the olden time attend upon these hearsed bones, 
and move in procession with them. Again we seem to witness the 
old ancestral patriotism ; again to listen to the precepts of a wisdom 
that no longer walks the earth ; again the fathers are with us, and 
we move as within the halo of their presence. Virginians, we bring 
you here the casket we have guarded ; we now commit to your 
hands, what so long has been entrusted to our own. Our work is 
finished, our duties done. "We surrender to you this mortal : you 
will crown it with the emblems of immortality. We deliver to you 
this perishing record of the past: you will inscribe upon it that 
justice he so affectingly craved of you fur his memory ia the futura 
7i) 



20 



ir K A N R . 



Vir--iiii.i -iii.itlicr--it, is tliiis tli.it Now Vurk '/wo?, hack to you 
.y..iir,s,.ii." 

(uMiL'ial (V)cliraiiu exceoils tlie luctliuiii liuiglit ; is of wi'll- 
(■(iiiipiictctl Jranic, witli habits of iiiiisciilar alertness and mental 
activity. A bilious-sanguine temperament disposes liiiii well 
to I lie endiiraiice of fatigue and to vigorous longevity. He was 
boiii 'JTlli of August, 1813, and has attained the limits of a 
strong and useful manhood. lie is still unniMrrie.!. Ti mgh 
Willi tastes nitaclie.l to studious seclusi.m, his life hithert., has 
been oflener displayed in public, than remarked in private. 
As a.ivaucing years witlidniw him from the l/iw. it may 1)0 
prcsinne<l that h<' will signalize his hisure witli a corresponding 
appliciitiun to the [jursuits of Literal uie. 
SO 



JOHN N. GOODWIN. 

^P^-^OV. JOHN N. GOODWIN was born in South Berwick, 
^j^v Maiue, and spent the earlier years of iiis life at the District 

|*)i School in Berwick, where he was fitted to enter college. 
In the year 1844, he graduated at Dartmouth with the first 
honors of his class. He immediately commenced the study of law, 
and in due time was admitted to the bai-, and began the practice of 
law in his native town. As a young lawyer, he was very successful ; 
always taking as much interest in his client's affairs, as if they were 
his own ; always ready to defend the widow and fatherless, and ex- 
tend a helping hand to every one in need. "With few exceptions, 
success followed success, for many years. In 1854 he was elected to 
the Legislature of his native State. In 1860 he was elected to the 
Thirty-seventh Congress, serving on tlie Committee of the Intenor 
and Invalid Pensions. Subsequently, President Lincoln appointed 
Mr. Goodwin to the Chief Justice-ship of the Territory of Ai-izona; 
and afterwards he was appointed Governor of Arizona, and from 
thence he was elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress at Washington. 
At the present, he is on the Pacific coast, managing and arranging the 
affairs of one of the largest enterprises ever undertaken in this 
country. 

Mr. Goodwin is a man of tine personal appearance, and of agree- 
able qualities. He has risen to his ])resent position by industry and 
an honorable life, he is esteemed by all who know him, he possesses 
purity as stainless as when he entered upon public life, and integrity 
as unimpeachable as when first elected to ofiice. 
81 



WILLIAM A. BOOTH. 

^B^,3&''^E shall give, in this sketch, the career of one of those old 
^^^a merchants of New York — old, though not in years — who 
"^^^ are, as it were, the last remaining links of the city of 
half a century ago and the great metropolis of to-day. 
Fifty years ago William A. Booth went to Manhattan Island to seek 
his fortune, going thither from Stratford, Connecticut, where he was 
born on the 6tli of JSTovembor, 1805. He was then a youth of six- 
teen years of age. New York was at that time (1821) a good-sized 
town lying on the southern end of the island. AU that part of the 
present city around the Tombs prison was a swamp ; above what is 
now Canal street there was no urban population. From there to 
Spuyten Duyvel creek the country was laid out in farms, many of 
which could have been bought cheap for cash, which are now worth 
in lots some hundreds and thousands of dollars per square foot. 

It was to this New York of the past that the lad came. He had 
received a good education at the Academy of his native town. In 
his early childhood he had been taught habits of self-reliance, and at 
sixteen years of age was fitted to enter upon the struggle of life. 
A New England boy of fifty years ago was a man in everything 
save in age. Familiar with labor, the term business was no mean- 
ingless one to him. Hence he did not leave Connecticut unprepared 
to do battle with the world. He brought with him capacity, and, 
aided by resolution, energy, integrity and vim, entered confidently 
into the contest. 

His first employment as a clerk was his last. Mr. Booth entered 
a wholesale establishment on Front street, where he remained some 
four years, working hard and diligently, acquiiing experience and 
S3 



2 W I I. T. I A M A . B O O T II . 

bocoming faiiiiliarizeil with tlii; l)iisiiiosH customs of tlio city. l?y 
the year 1825 he had fiuislicd liis novitiate, having so recominoiuled 
liimself to his employer that lie was taken into co-partnership ami 
t'rom boiiif^ a clerk became a proprietor. Such rapid ])romotion, 
liiised as this was exclusively on business talents and an unimpeach- 
able honesty, and not backed by capital, so far as we are aware, was 
something unusual then and still more unusual now. ft was an 
incontrovertible evidence that he was something more than an ordi- 
nary mercantile character. And, indeed, his present high standing 
and affluence in New York attest the ability he possesses. 

During tlie same year that Mr. Booth became a partner of his 
employei-, he engaged in the sugar trade. Perhaps it would be an 
easy matter to tell the progress of New York city from that year to 
the present time by simply noting the increase in his business. lie 
commenced iu a small way — in fact, the commerce of the coun- 
tiy did not admit of auy other way — and as the population of the 
United States increased and the city grew larger, his business in- 
creased in like ratio. For nearly half a century he has been in the 
sugar trade, part of the time selling largely on commission, and 
where he sold ten pounds in 1825, he now sells barrels. Cool and 
cautious in all his transactions, he won the confidence of these who 
entrusted business to his management. Connnercial crises came 
and went, and he proved himself equal to every emergency. 

Twenty years ago Mr. Booth engaged in sugar refining. Under 
his direction was constructed the refinery of his house in the city of 
New York, and for a long time he supervised in person its manu- 
facturing and mechanical departments, meeting with great success 
and demonstrating thereby the truth of the old adage, that " the eye 
of the master fattens his sheep." "When, however, his son had grown 
to years of discretion and had become fully instructed iu the various 
mysteries of the business, the management of the establishment was 
gradually turned over to him and the subject of this sketch gradu- 
ally retired tVom its charge. 

Previous to entering into tliu refining business, Mr. Bonth iiad, 
84 



from 1830, been largely connected with the China trade, botli in thf 
raanagement of the ships and. in disposing of their cargoes. This 
trade he carried on for twenty-five years with uniform success, clos- 
ing it in 1855 and devoting his entire attention to his sugar interests. 
As might be imagined, Mr. Booth's success as a financier was not 
less signal than his good fortune as a merchant. He was and still 
is one of those men who, to use a homely phrase, understand how 
to handle money. Engaging in strictly monetary transactions, it 
was not long before his ability, skill and experience rendered him 
efficient in banking circles', and in 1855 he was elected President 
of the American Exchange Bank, with which institution he had 
been previously connected. This position he held until 1860, when 
he declined a re-election, but remained a director of the bank, which 
he has been since 1844. During the terrible commercial crisis of 
1857, he steered the bank safely through the Scylla and Charybdis 
of the financial crash and added another token to the many already 
given of his capacity to till the important office to which he had 
been chosen. 

On his retirement from the bank in 1860, numerous offices of 
financial trust and responsibility were ofi'ered him, but he declined 
them all. As a bank president he was bold, but not rash, scrupu- 
lously exact in all his dealings and successful in his operations. At 
the outbreak of the rebellion in 1860 he gave important voluntary 
aid to the Treasury department, devoting much time to the financial 
interests of the coimtry and contributing not a Httle to placing the 
credit of the country on a firm footing. Frequently his services 
were demanded in furthering the negotiations of the Treasury de- 
partment, and we need not say that they were always willingly 
rendered. He also took much interest in the railroads of the coun- 
try, and after the great crash of 1857 was foremost in the work of 
organizing the Chicago and North-Western Railroad Company and 
the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad Company. On the 18th of July, 
1871, he was unanimously chosen President of the Grocers' Board 
of Trade, (a new organization ;) in the course of his speucii, retnrn- 
85 



,1AM A . B O O T H . 



ing thanks for the honor conferred upon liiin, Mr. l>ooth stated tlie 
objects of the association to be,—" to furnish dealers in tea, coffee, 
sugar, etc., with accurate intelligence, to prevent dishonorable prac- 
tices, to settle all disagreements by arbitration, and tu promote the 
general interests of the ti-ade." 

Mr. Booth's life has been illustrated by numerous charitable acts. 
For over forty years he has been intimately connected and asso- 
ciated with the various benevolent and philanthropic efforts and in- 
stitutions which have been established in our midst. During the 
past decade of years much of his time has been devoted unreservedly 
to organizing and sustaining Christian institutions. For several 
years he has been President of the " American Seamen's Friend 
Society," the "Children's Aid Society," and the "American and 
Foreign Chi-istian Union." Throughout his life he has always con- 
tributed largely for the spread of the Gospel at home and abroad, 
and altliougli himself unable to leave the city, he has always been 
one of the most liberal 8ui>porters of the missionaries and has not 
spared his substance in propagating a pure religion, and in sending 
it abroad into all lands. Well, indeed, may Mr. Booth be termed 
the Christian merchant. The record of his life shows how strenu- 
o>is he has ever been to maintain a high standard of mercantile in- 
tegrity in the community ; and Ids own career is a striking example 
for all time. There is nothing of the bigot about him. He is sim- 
ply a gentleman who holds that obedience to and love of God are 
of more consequence than wealth, and he has shown how prosperity 
can be attained, and how reputation can be won, by a strict adher- 
ence to those religious teachings wiiich form the only true founda- 
tion of all civilized Christian societies. 

In 18()0 Mr. Booth, accompanied by part of his family, left New 
York and made a tour of Europe and Asia, visiting England and the 
European continent, and traveling extensively in parts of Syria, 
Palestine and Egypt, and also making a voyage up the Nile. In 186!) 
he stai'ted on another tour, re-ascending the Nile as far as the first cat- 
aract and returning by way of Constantinople, the Danube and Italy. 



WILLIAM A. BOOTH. 5 

Until within the past two or three years, the summer residence 
of this distinguished merchant was in his native town of Stratford, 
among his early friends and associates, by whom he is highly 
esteemed and respected. At present, however, his summer residence 
is at Englewood, New Jersey. 

Personally, Mr. Booth is a most estimable gentleman. A warm- 
hearted, genial companion, his society is always agreeable. He has 
always a pleasant word and a smile for all, and his conversation is 
never dull. Now past the prime of life he can look back upon the 
long years without having anything to reproach himself for, and his 
declining years will, we trust, be unclouded by any sorrow, be it 
never so brief. 

87 



SAMUEL J. TILDEJST. 



HERE is no other country where the position of a lawyer 
reaches the dignity and power that it possesses here. Jle 
has not here, in front of him, an aristocracy of hereditary 
title or of wealth. If a leader in his profession, he is in the front 
himself. If his professional pursuits carry hiin, in iiis career, 
beyond the investigation of subjects of mere personal interest, he 
becomes versed in constitutional questions, in the principles that 
guide the grandest civil interests and the state itself. If his ora- 
tory has the true fire, his leadership is supported by the tide of 
popularity. If he is a profound thinker, his counsel becomes con- 
trolling among his associates. If he has physical energy, his in- 
fluence becomes active and real. If he acquires honest wealth,' 
the independence it brings takes off all the weight from him in the 
race; and if his character secures for him a reputation for integ- 
rity and the honor of his countrymen, he has the whole held open 
to him, and he becomes tlie representative of a power beyond his 
own. 

The foundation of true virtue, as of true genius, is force. Force 
accomplishes results. The vindication of success demonstrates 
that a man does not march counter to his time and to human prog- 
ress, but that he represents an idea at the precise time when 
that idea is worth representing; that if the times that try men's 
souls come, he has a soul worth trying. Whoever does not succeed 
is of no use to the world, and he passes away as if he never 
existed. 

These are reflections proper to an estimate of the character 
of Samuel J. Tilden. At the point, in his course, wlien the world 
89 



S 3A M UEI, J. TILDEN. 

opoiuHl before him lie cliose the profession of a lawyer, and has, in 
singleness of purpose, pursued the path of his i)rofeB8ion with a 
diligoneo that lias phvced him, midway in a wholo life's course, in a 
position of whieh all tiio advantages are in his power. 

His fii-st entry upon pubiie life was in tlic political campaign in 
1SU2, whieh resulted in the election of General Jackson to his 
second term of tlie Presidency. At that time William L. Marcy 
wna governor of the State of New York, beginning an adminis- 
tration known as the Albany Regency. The opposition to the 
Jackson or Democratic ticket depended upon the coalition between 
ihc national liepublican party and the Anti-masons, a political 
friigment, of brief existence on a local issue, which was nnide 
up of men drawn from each of tiie main parties. Success in the 
election, as shown by the event which terminatetl the political 
iiistory of the Anti-masons, depended upoji discrediting the coali- 
tion and withdrawing from it old Democrats into the ranks of their 
own party. Althougii ho was but eighteen yeai's of age, Mr. Til- 
den had ah'eady explored the facts and principles of tiiis political 
situation, whicli had been for some years a leading question in 
State politics; and, of his own motion, had written a paper leveled 
directly at tiie result, and this accidentally came toliglit. 

At his father's house in Now Lebanon, Columbia County, New 
York, he had formed an acquaintance with the great statesmen 
of the .lacks. mian era — William L. Marcy, Martin Van Huren, A. C. 
Flagg, 8ilas Wriglit, Michael Hofl'man, and the Livingstons. His 
father was a farmer, from English ancestors who settled in Massa- 
ciiuselts, at Scituate, in 1(520, removed to Connecticut in 1715, and 
thence to Columbia County, in 1790. He was a neighbor of Mr, 
Van Buren and the Livingstons, and was himself not without in- 
Ihience among the statesmen who were his friends. Mr. Tilden's 
pajier becoming known in this circle, it was taken to Albany, and 
appeared in the Albany Argus on the 9th of October, 1S32, as an 
address to the electoi-s of Columbia County. It soon happened that 
a standard was applied to the ability of the paper, and to its effect 
90 



SAMUIOL J. TILDEN. 3 

in a caiivasB that was engaging the vigor of tlie ablest men, for the 
editor was obliged to defend Mr. "Van Buren from an imputation 
of self-seeking, by stating that it was not from his pen. This po- 
litical association, the most powerful in the history of the State, 
continued, with Mr. Tilden in its counsels, until, after thirty years, 
he himself came into the leadership of his party. 

In 1832 he came to the city of New York to pursue his studies. 
These were interrupted by ill health ; and although there is now 
no trace left of it, his appearance was such that he was sometimes 
conscious, in the greeting of his friends, of their surprise at seeing 
him again. Still, a while at Yale College, and with private in- 
struction in New York, he kept at work in tlie acquisition of 
knowledge and the training of his powers. It is one of the quali- 
ties of genius that it can work all night. This sort of unremitting 
labor, pursued under a supreme necessity of physical exercise for 
his health's sake, and the close direction of his studies in the single 
line of the law and its cognate branches, rapidly advanced him 
in his profession. He confined himself to the great questions 
that arose before liim, and never became engaged in a general 
practice. Ilis studies in history, political economy, and meta- 
physics, all the more fruitful because they were driven for a pur- 
pose in the intervals of professional occupations, expanded in him 
the broad views, and fixed in him the general principles of science, 
which impelled him along the special professional path he had 
chosen. The line he was engaged in as counsel in the cases of 
great corporations, gave a practical application to his early incli- 
nation for financial discussions, and brought his profound study of 
the financial aspects of political economy up to the solution of 
actual questions. When he was twelve years old, his grandmother 
read to him alternately in the Bible and in Jefferson's Corre- 
spondence, and upon that foundation he has built. 

In his political career he has never sought office, nor held any 
since they were open to his ambition. The principle that it is the 
first of social duties for a. citizen of a republic to take his fair 
91 



4 PAMHEL J. TII-DKN. 

allutiucnt of care and trouble in all public affairs, when it lixlgcf. 
in a true and generous heart, excludes the use of political power 
as a means of self-aggrandizement. He served one year in the 
State Assembly, as a delegate from the city of New York, in 1846 ; 
and was an active member of the Constitutional Convention of 
1840, and of that of 1867. In the former he was next to Michael 
Hoffman on the Committee on Canals and the Financial Obligations 
of the State, and in the latter was on the Committee on Finance. 

In 1806 he was chosen one of the Democratic State Committee, 
and at the same time took the position of its chairman. He suc- 
ceeded Dean Richmond who had been chairman since 1850, and to 
whom Mr. Tilden had been a trusted confidential adviser. It has 
thus fallen to him to preside at, or to open, many of the most im- 
portant conventions of that party. His speeches, on these occa- 
sions of breaking ground, have been remarkable for the precision 
and fervor with which he would express the dominant idea of the 
time, and the grasp he would take at the heart of the questions 
rising to be political issues. In the constitutional conventions, 
finances and the canals, the principal financial topic, engaged his 
attention, and he was successful, in 1846, in shaping the canal 
policy which has since proved so beneficial. 

In his professional career he has engaged not only in cases which 
required argument in the Courts of Review, upon the principles of 
law which fitted a case of developed facts ; but more eminently in 
the development of the facts themselves, from complicated sources, 
in the order of their legal value, so as to comprise the law, com- 
plete the case, convince the court and carry the jury. As Judge 
Hogeboom said of his summing up, on such an occasion, he spoke 
as if in a trance. 

In the year 1855 Azariah C. Flagg received the certificate of 
election as Comptroller of the City of New York, and his title to the 
ofiSce was contested by his opponent by quo loarranto. The vote 
had been so close, that a change in the return in a single election 
district would alter the result. Upon a fraud inserted here hia 
92 



SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 5 

opponent proceeded, and proved that the three hundred and sixteen 
votes counted fur Mr. Flaog. belonged to him, and that his one hun- 
dred and eighty-six votes were all that Mr. Flagg received. He re- 
lied on the tally lists, which were on two sheets of paper ; the one 
containing the canvass of the regular tickets was lost, but false 
results were pretended to have been transferred from it to the sheet 
containing the canvass of the split tickets, by certain figures, which, 
added to the votes there shown for him, gave him the three hundred 
and sixteen. That this was the truth, and that by an error made in 
the return, the votes had been transposed, was confirmed by the 
oral evidence of the inspectors, and appeared to be overwhelming. 
Mr, Tilden, by a logical and mathematical analysis,— shown by tables 
derived from the tally list that remained, the number of tickets 
and of candidates, and the aggregate votes,— reconstructed the lost 
list, and proved conclusively that the return for Mr. Flagg was cor- 
rect, and that the results pretended to have been transferred from 
it were arbitrary, false, and necessarily impossible. He won the 
case for Mr. Flagg on his opening. 

In the Burdell case, in 1857, which was tried, on the issue of his 
marriage, before Surrogate Bradford, the circumstantial and positive 
evidence of respectable witnesses in favor of the marriage was com- 
plete. On the theory that a fabricated tissue, however artful, if 
torn by cross-examination would reveal the truth, he put the one 
hundred aud forty-two witnesses to the test, and developed a series 
of circumstances which struck the mind of the judge " with irresis- 
tible force," and led to his " entire satisfaction and conviction " 
that the marriage had never taken place. 

In the Cumberland coal case in 1858, in Maryland, there is an 
illustration of his ability to establish a purely legal principle. He 
sustained the doctrine that a trustee can not become a purchaser of 
property confided to him for sale, and applied that doctrine to the 
directors of corporations ; fully exhibiting the equitable principles 
on which such sales are set aside, and the conditions necessary 
to give them validity. 

93 



Q SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 

In the case ot the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company against 
the Pennsylvania Coal Company, in 1&63, the rights of the canal 
company to a large increase of toll, on a perpetual contract for coal 
transportation, depended upon the question of fact, whetlier as 
tliuy cliiimed, by Uvrger boats on an enlarged canal, the transpor- 
tation had been rendered cheaper. By a calculation that took years 
of labor, brought in with its just weight every statistic and circum- 
stance of canal navigation, and by the application of the law of 
average, Mr. Tilden establislied the fact against the canal company, 
and against the popular opinion ; and settled the fundamental eco- 
nomic principles of canal navigation for the country. 

In addition to many such cases, he has, since 1855, been exten- 
sively conne(ited with the railroad enterprises of the country, par- 
ticularly of the West. Perhaps more than half of those enter- 
prises, north of the Ohio, between the Hndson and the Missouri, 
have stood to him in the relation of clientage. The general mis- 
fortunes, between 1855 and 1860, which brought insolvency upon 
so many of these railroads, and placed in peril and confusion the 
interests of people of all conditions, who were their creditors and 
contractors, bondholders and stockholders, called for some plan of 
relief. It was here that his legal knowledge, financial skill, labori- 
ous industry, weight of character and personal influence were called 
into action, and resulted in a plan of reorganization which pro- 
tected equitably the rights of all parties, in many cases saved tire- 
some and wasting litigation, was generally adopted, and has 
resulted in a condition of railroad prosperity as eminent as the 
depression was severe. His relations with these companies and the 
individuals controlling them, have continued, and his thorough com- 
prehension of their history and requirements, his practical energy 
and decision, have elevated him to the mastery of the questions 
that arise in the organization, administration, and finances of 
canals as well as railroads, so that their prosperity can not be sepa- 
rated from his influence upon them. 

If there were space to expand these outlines into full iilustra 
94 



SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 7 

tions, it would jiistifj the estimate placed upon his tlianietcr, aud 
the indication of the elements of his success. He has that rare 
equipoise between courage and judgment, which saves him from 
being rash in the hour of reflection, and from indecision at the mo- 
ment of action. There is a mean between the tiieoretic^al, whicli 
penetrates ultimate causes and comprehends remote influences, and 
the practical, which looks ahead at the immediate result and the im- 
pediments. From that stand-point, the man who can get there, tests 
and rectifies theories, weighs on fundamental principles means and 
ends, and finishes by concentrating the power of all causes toward the 
accomplishment of a single object. The theorist lacks result, and 
the practical man lacks power; but the man who is alive to the duty 
of to-day, and who has spent his time in settling principles, and 
correcting them by daily application to those ends which are the 
object of an active and eminent life, illustrates the elements ot 



These elements exist in Mr. Tilden in two forms. He has the 
power of analysis, and the power of combination. The power of 
analysis is rare; in most men it arises when they find them- 
selves in emergencies, where they are compelled to thiidc and to 
decide. It is the power to investigate, with intricate research, the 
mass of facts of a case which meets one like a chaos, and out of 
it to pluck up the hinging facts, and swing them in their logical 
order: it is the persistence in holding a complex mass of ideas, 
facts, principles, and illustrations under the mental lens, until dis- 
tinct and accurate views appear, and at the focus rises the image to 
be realized. Then comes into play the power of combination and 
organization, which is the rarer power, and without which th« 
power of analysis is like an ungathered harvest. It is the power 
to comprehend the situation, to devise the expedient, to seize the 
opportunity, to combine men and to carry their convictions. Mr. 
Van Buren was an example of this power ; and even in his day, 
and in the councils of the Regency, Mr. Tilden stood among them, 
not without pm-pose and not without honor; so that Miehaul Hofl"- 



8 SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 

niiin said of liini, " lliat young man will liavc his way, for he has 
a plan." 

It need hardly be added of such a man that, within his range, 
he reads every thing. He does not rest upon his acquisitions as a 
sufficient capital, but keeps in advance on the fresh fields of 
thought ; and the library with wliich he surrounds himself, rich in 
all branches, is full on his favorite topics of political economy and 
finance. 

If you were to meet him, you would find a man full of convic- 
tions and of great gentleness, fond of abstruse questions, quick in 
his appreci;.tion of literature and art, jealous of tlie dignity of bis 
profession, and with a candor and fairness which leaves him no 
opponents. His penetration into the merits of a case, and liis 
grasp of the justice of it, are such, that it is the characteristic of 
his business that he settles controversies, or rather, prevents them, 
by leading the parties away from their differences to the point 
where they can agree, and which they all see to be riglit. It is 
because he gains their confidence at the outset. You could not 
leave him without your thoughts, })erhaps your feelings lingering 
upon him. 

In a social discussion, he is full of enthusiasm and of grace. 
You watch for the source of the spell which holds you, and would 
find it in the fullness of his human nature, were it not in the intel- 
lectual fascination of a man who thoroughly understands his sub- 
ject, and is in earnest about making you believe it. He will in an 
argument gather up the points of the controversy, or analyze 
and balance an array of facts, from clear statement rise into 
eloquence, and with a rigorous accuracy that leaves not a point to 
be contested, reach his conclusion and clinch it, with his hearers in 
the silent consciousness which follows an argument which was not 
made to be answered. 

In public life, his part would be that of a statesman. He would 
determine the principles and plan, rather than execute the details 
of an administrative office. He would direct the counsels of a 



SAMUEL J. TILDEN. Q 

political party, rather than encounter the turbulence of its contests'. 
But with his native largeness of mind; with an experience that 
measures the material interests of all classes of men in all their 
modes of advancement ; with a power to delve among and array 
facts, and upon them to erect a philosophic basis from which to 
press on to action ; with a logical method, an utter familiarity and 
a fearless consciousness of power in handling great questions, his 
place would be found at great 'crises, and under the burden of the 
insoluble problems of a parliamentary debate. At such a moment, 
as amid the financial difficulties and crude remedies which have 
followed the rebellion, he would be the man to contrive the scheme 
which comprehended every determining fact, and overcame every 
possible objection ; which was sound in principle and efficient in 
]>ractice, and by liis reasoning and advocacy to bring order upon 
what was formless and void, and, because he was right, to gain the 
convictions of men and achieve great results for his country. 

During the most active period of his life, the party to which he 
belongs has held too loosely the i-eins of its power, so that he has 
deserved well of his country, ratlier than had a career. It will be 
a brilliant epoch in the history of our nation, when the ideas which 
are to shape its policy and advance its destiny emerge into domi- 
nance, and, with its representative men foremost, the party shall 
resume its power. 



ERASTUS COENELIUS BENEDICT. 

f'rOR the following notes of the life and character of Eras- 
tus C. Benedict, LL.D., we are indebted mostly to the 
" Genealogy of the Benedicts in America, by Henry 
M. Benedict, Albany, Joel Munsel, 1870." Hi8 first American 
progenitor was Thomas Benedict, who, being the last of the 
name in England, came to America in 1637, and settled first on 
Long Island, but finally went to Norwalk, Conn. He was emin- 
ently a man of progress. He had but just arrived on the island 
when by the General Court of Connecticut he was clothed sub- 
stantially with the power of government on the island, at that 
time having little connection with the mainland. In the language 
of the old record, he was •' empowered to act in point of Govern- 
ment ;" " invested with magistratical power on the island." He 
was identified with the formation of the first Presbyterian church 
in America at Jamaica, and was a pillar in the church both in ISTew 
York and Connecticut. He was the arbitrator of differences, civil- 
ized and savage. If an Indian chief was exasperated, it fell to 
his lot to pacify him. He was an officer in the train band of the 
infant settlement. He was a member from Jamaica of the first 
English legislative body that ever met in the State of New York, 
called together at Hempstead to create and codify the system of 
law on the island after the conquest from the Dutch, and was after- 
wards repeatedly a member of the colonial legislature of Connecti- 
cut. He aided in the organization and sending out of little colonies 
to plant new neighborhoods in New Jersey and Connecticut. He 
always, during a very long life, in the small way of primitive times, 
carried forward the line of national progress. The same spirit 
descended to his son John, and his grandson James, and to his 
99 



o i:UASTUS COUNHI.IUS UCNKUICT. 

{^ival t^Tiiiuis .M, l\>ler, win. was ii Wlii- ..fllic JicvoliKii'U, residing; 
in tho ni-uli'.il -Ti.un.l in We.tcliosler Connly, N. Y. lie gave to 
his sons tho hi-iiolit of a liberal oihu-ation, two in Yulo, and one in 
Trincoton Collogc. in I ho truo spirit of those days, tho jouugest, 
I'eter, loft Yale College and wont as orderly sergeant with (ienerul 
Montgomery to Canada, and afttu'wards as lieutenant under General 
Washington, had tho distinction of being ollicially recorded as a 
" very good otheor." Tho second was Itev. Joel Benedict, D.D., of 
Plainlield. The eldest, llov. Abuer, grandfather of the subject of 
thisskeleli, after the death of his lirstwilb, went through Yale Col- 
lege anil became a clergyman. When the war broke out he loft 
his congregation temporarily to act as a volunteer chaplain, and 
was one of tho last in tho retreat from Long Island, and was in tho 
battles of White Plains and Harlem. lie was a profound scholar, 
philosopher, and theologian. Uis sons, Kev. Joel Tyler and Rev. 
Abuer, wore both educated by him. 

His oldest, Eov. Joel Tyler, father of the subject of this sketch, 
was bred a lawyer, but after ten years' practice, his views under- 
going a change, ho became a Presbyterian clergyman. Eager, 
in his "History of Orange County," says of him: "Mr. Benedict 
was a man of ardent piety, untiring zeal, ixad eloquence, Avhich 
continually drew crowds to listen to his preaching." Ho some- 
times left his people, and j^.rcached as a missionary in the southern 
counties of New York and the adjacent counties of Pennsylvania. 
Tho siuno result followed his preaching there. Tho inhabitants 
flocked to hear him, and were deeply affected. He was almost 
constantly in the midst of religious revivals from the time he 
entered tho ministry till his health failed uuder a pulmonary 
attack, from exposure hi a ministerial journey in the snows of win- 
ter. His sons were Hon. George W. Benedict, LL.D., of Ver- 
mont ; Abner Benedict, a lawyer of New Y'ork ; Hon. Adiu W. 
Benedict, a lawyer of Pennsylvania, and Erastus C, who was his 
second son, born March 10, ISOO. Like all clergymen in the 
rural districts at that time, his peeuuiary rcoourccs (or the support 
10() 



EEASTU8 CORNELIUS BENEDICT. 8 

and education of a larpe family were very small, which forced all 
the Bons to rely maiuly u])on their own industry for support and 
education even during their minority. The family removed to 
New York in 1803. 

In early life Erastu3 C. had some experience in teaching, com- 
mencing as a common school teacher in 1816, and ending as a tutor 
in Williams College in 1824. He entered the sophomore class at 
Williams College in September, 1818, and graduated with honor in 
1821, He then took charge of the academy in Johnstown, and 
subsequently with his brother, the academy in Newburgh, pursu- 
ing his professional studies at the time. His professional studies 
completed, at the end of the year 1824, he entered upon the prac- 
tice of the law in the city of New York, where he has ever since 
been and is now a successful lawyer. 

'During his whole life he has been actively connected with the 
interests of public education. When the common school system 
was extended to thh city of New York, he was chosen among the 
first trustees of common schools, and subsequently, in 1850, was 
elected a member of the board of education for the city, of which 
board he was president for several years. He resigned his oflace as 
member of the board of education in 18G3, not however until he 
was generally recognized as among the first who were instnimental 
in consolidating and maturing the entire school system of New York 
city. The services he rendered, co-operating with like-minded men, 
in rearing the Free Academy, now the College of New York, are 
admitted by all. He was among the select number who confessedly 
laid the permanent foundations of that Areopagus and royal home 
of college advantages for the masses in the city of New York, and 
through his efforts it received the power to confer degrees, and rose 
to the rank of a college. In 1855 he was appointed by the Legis- 
lature one of the Board of Regents of the University of the State, 
a board having the superintendence of all the colleges and academies 
of the State, which otiice he still holds. In 18-10 he was elected a 
member of the Common Council of the city of New York ; in 1818 
101 



4 EUASTUS COKNKLIUS BENEDICT. 

ho was II uieiubtT Dl'tlie State Legislature, ami again in 186-4. He 
is un older in the Retbnned Cliurcli ; was a member of the General 
Synod in 1868, and ia a member of the eseeutive committee of the 
Evangelioal Alliance and of the Board of Education of the Re- 
forinod (."hureh in Amcriea. 

Mr. B. is the author of " The American Admiralty," a standard 
law book, of which a new and enlarged edition is this year (1870) 
published ; of "■ A Run Through Europe," a book of travels through 
most of the countries of Europe, the fourth edition of which was 
published in 1871 ; of the " Hymn of Hildebert and other Mediaeval 
Hymns, with Translations," of which a new and enlarged edition 
was published in ISili) ; and of various pamphlets, reviews, speeches, 
and adrcsses on literary, religious, and political subjects ; and fugi- 
tive pooms, many of which have been published at different times 
during the last thirty years, including " Presby terianism," a pamph- 
let on the division of the Presbyterian Church in 1838 ; " The 
Beginning of America," the anniveraary discourse before the New 
York Historical Society in 1863; and a Speech on the War, while 
a member of the Legislature in 1864. In 1840 he delivered the 
anniversary address before the Society of Alumni of Williams Col- 
lege. Since that time he has performed the same duty at the first 
anniversary of the Free Academy of New York ; before the Phi 
Bota Kappa Society of the University of Vermont ; the literary 
societies of the Univei-sity of the city of New Yoi-k ; and of Rut- 
gers College, New Jersey ; and before the State Normal School at 
Albany. Ilis degree of LL.D., was given him by Rutgers College, 
in 1865. 

This record, like all such, necessai-ily furnishes only a very im- 
perfect view of Mr. Benedict's long and earnest professional and 
literary life. He assumed with confidence the grave responsibilities 
of manhood when a mere boy, and from that time onward devoted 
himself with singular patience and steadiness of purpose to the work 
of life. As a lawyer, the American bar will not permit any other 
place to be finally a.^signed him except among the very first, if not 
102 



ERASTUS CORNELIUS BENEDICT. 5 

the first, in the front rank of admiralty lawyers. His name lias 
been made familiar to the profession throughout the country by the 
work referred to above, which is everywhere a standard text-book ; 
but far more by his practice as an admiralty lawyer, which for nearly ' 
ahalf century has been co-extensive with our Atlantic coast. It is due 
to a record of this kind to fix. if possible, and perpetuate other per- 
sonal characteristics. Mr. Benedict is distinguished as a hard worker 
outside his profession. As an officer of the New York Historical 
Society, a member of its executive committee for twenty-eight years 
and now the chairman of that committee, as also in his relations as 
officer to various other societies,religious, charitable, and educational, 
his laboi-8 have been great. He has been a trustee of Williams College 
since 1855, and has, by a permanent fund, established several prizes 
in that college. He has been manager of the Association for Im- 
proving the Condition of the Poor since its organization in 1848; 
manager of the American Art Union while it existed, and also a 
governor of the State Woman's Hospital since its incorporation. 
Coleridge, in one of his aphorisms, asserts that there is no higher 
evidence of genius than the ability to maintain in advancing years 
the fresh, genial feelings of youth. All who know Mr. Benedict 
wiU admit at once that he comes within Coleridge's rule. He is 
now, to all appearances, as laborious, as earnest, as hopeful, as much 
interested in his profession, and in plans for benefiting his fellow- 
men as when he first struck out. He is now interested as much as 
ever in the social, political, and moral questions which are engagino- 
the attention of advancing minds, and in aid of their solution he 
brings not only ripeness, but wonderful freshness. The writer of 
this notice has endeavored to be a faithful contributor to history, 
and in dismissing the subject of this sketch, he simply says that lie 
has nothing to fear from the impartial judgment of cotemporaries ; 
as for the rest, it may be safely left to a future age, if not to other 
countries. 

103 







^'^^^►-t^^-^i^^ 



JOHTT GEEGQ-RY SMITH. 



\W|5^I1E present century may well be called the era of progress 

<^X^ and of great enterprises. More particularly so, in the 

^ ^ rapid extension of commerce and civilization by means of 
railways. In this country, especially, has the growth of railroads 
been, within the last twenty years, unprecedented. 

Throughout its vast domain they have been built with a rapidity 
which has e.xcited the wonder and admiration of the world, and in 
their management men distinguished for intellectual capacity and 
great executive ability are employed. Prominently among the 
great railroad managers, stands the subject of this sketch. 

John Gregory Smith was born in the village of St. Albans, 
Vermont, on the 22d day of July, 1818. 

His father, John Smith, was one of the most influential men in 
the State; a lawyer by profession, he was from the l)eginning 
identified with the railway interests of Vermont. He had repre- 
sented his district in Congress, and at the time of his death, which 
occurred in 1858, was one of the trustees and managers of the 
Vermont Central, and Vermont and Canada Railroads. 

John Gregory, his eldest son, graduated at the University of 
Vermont, and studied law at the New Haven Law School. 

At the age of twenty-three he began the practice of law in com- 
pany with his father, and continued in the profession, earning the 
reputation of an able and successful lawyer, until, at his father's 
death, he was appointed by the Chancellor to fill the vacancy thus 
created. 

The affairs of the Vermont Central Railroad were at that time 
in a most deplorable condition, the stock worthless, the securitieii 
105 



2 joH.v gukCtOry smith. 

of t!ie company nearly so ; its credit gone, the equipment almost 
worn out, and the road-bed almost entirely unserviceable ; in fact, 
tlie friends of the road had, for the most part, given the whole 
enterprise up in des])air. 

Upon Mr. Smith's assuming the control of the ruad, the condi- 
tion of affairs began to improve. By his far-sightedness and good 
judgment, his indomitable energy and perseverance, and, above 
all. bv his rare executive ability, the improvement of the road 
steadily progressed. The maze of intricate litigation and legis- 
hition which had hitherto hampered and embarrassed every move- 
ment, was unraveled and adjusted, until the road now stands in the 
position of tlie foremost railroad of New England, and second to 
none in the country for general equipment. 

The earnings of the road, from being barely sufficient to pay the 
running expenses, have reached the tigure of more than two mil- 
lions of dollars. 

lie was* elected to the State Senate in the years of 1858 and 
1859, and represented his town the three years following; the last 
of which, 1802, he was made speaker of the House. The year 
following, he was called to the gubernatorial chair, which he filled 
tlirough two terms of office. This was during tlie darkest period 
of our great civil war. when the resources of the whole nation 
were taxed to the utmost. 

The same untiring zeal and enei'gy which he had before displayed 
he infused into his administration of State affairs. 

The calls of the general government for troops were always 
promptly met, and the men, fully armed and equipped^, were 
in the field on time. The full quota of the State was always tilled 
without delay, and though the agricultural population of the State 
made it particularly severe, yet not 9. paper man was ever returned, 
or a State draft necessaiy. 

No troops in the whole army were more thoroughly equij^ied or 
sent into the field in better condition than were the Vermont 
troops under Governor Smith's administration; and tlie late 
106 



JOHN GREGORY SMITH. 3 

lamented Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, often remarked, 
that he had less trouble witli tlie Vermont troops, than those of any 
other State. 

Nor did Governor Smith, through all the pressing aiid onerous 
duties entailed by the requisitions of the AVar Department and the 
many complications of the railroads, forget or neglect the indus- 
trial, educational, or agricultural interests of his State, but all 
were promoted and benefited in a large degree. 

During the campaign of General Grant from Culpepper to 
Petersburg, upon the first intelligence of the great battles of the 
Wilderness and Spottsylvania, Governor Smith, with a full and 
efficient corps of surgeons, proceeded at once to the field, and there 
with them labored night and day, sparing neitlier his private means 
nor personal comfort, till the last Vermont soldier who was sick or 
wounded was well cared for, furloughs obtained, and all who could 
be moved sent home to Vermont. 

It was during his term of office as chief magistrate, that the 
famous St. Albans raid occurred, and then was shown his peculiar 
diplomatic power, his quick perception and controlling influence 
over men, in healing over and preventing the open rupture which 
was so nearly made by an exasperated people on the one side, and 
the Canadian government on the other. It was through his exer- 
tions that the partial payment by the Canadian government to the 
banks which had suffered by the raiders was made. 

Soon after the close of his second term as chief executive, he 
was solicited by Governor DilUngham to fill the vacancy in the 
United States Senate, occasioned by the death of the Hon. 
Solomon Foote, which honor he declined ; and again, at the suc- 
ceeding election, he was urged to accept the same office at the 
hands of his fellow-citizens, but again declined. 

In 1866 Governor Smith was solicited by the grantees of the 

JSorthern Pacific Eailroad to accept the Presidency of that road. 

A charter, with the right of way from the head of Lake Superior 

to Puget Sound on the Pacific coast, with a liberal grant of land, 

107 



4 JOHN GRKGORY SMITH. 

had been obtained t'rtun the government in 1864, but there being no 
governmental aid of money, and the attention of capitalists being 
absorbed by the great struggle of the nation for its life, the affairs 
(if the company had fallen into a desperate state. But becoming 
convinced that the enterprise had in it all the essential elements of 
success, and that it was destined to be ultimately a great through 
line to the Pacific coast, he accepted the position of President. 

lipon failm-e to got further aid from Congress, his associates, one 
after another, discouraged by the magnitude of the enterprise and 
the difficult}- of obtaining the amount of money necessary to com- 
plete two thousiind miles of railroad through an almost unbroken 
wilderness, Mitlidrew, leaving him almost entirely alone, with the 
wliole burden of debt upon his shoulders. Nothing daunted by 
the delay, nor disheartened by the prospect, with that energy of 
purpose and fertility of resource for which he is so noted, he at 
once set about forming a new and more powerful combination. 
For a long period he carried the debt, the responsibility, the bur- 
den, unflinchingly ; interested and got into his board of directors, 
the best riulroad talent the country afforded, and the men of the 
largest capital; and now, with new life and vigor, one of the 
greatest enterprises of modern days is being pushed forward to an 
early com})letion ; and it will be but a short time before the 
governor will enjoy the fruition of his constancy, courage, and 
pereeverancc. 

At the age of twenty-five he married Miss Ann Eliza Brainerd, 
of St. Albans, which was one of the happiest of unions. She has 
made him a most accomplished and affectionate wife, in every way 
worthy of the man. He has five children, two sons and three 
daughters. His domestic relations are remarkably happy. He 
has a beautiful home, and few enjoy home comforts so well as he. 

In person the governor is about the medium height, firmly and 

compactly built, and capable of enduring the greatest latigue ; and 

has long had the reputation of being the hardest-working man in 

Vermont, llis mannei-s are peculiarlv genial and simple, and no 

103 



JOHN GREGORY SMITH. 5 

one, not even the lowest employee on any of his roads, is ever 
refused a full hearing. His purse is always open to tlje needy, 
and his assistance always aflbrded to the oppressed. 

His distinguishing characteristics are — most indomitable energy ; 
rare tact in the management of men; far-sightedness; a cool, dis- 
passionate judgment which seldom errs; liberality; warm, open- 
hearted hospitality ; and an integrity which even his most bitter 
enemies have never impeached. 

Governor Smith, in his public and private life, may be truly re- 
garded as one of New England's representative men. He has, at his 
command, a generous fund of useful knowledge, and has rarely boon 
at fault in his judgment of others, or in his estimate of important 
measures, whether connected with his official or his business career. 
JSTever backward in asserting his principles, he is willing to defer 
to the opinions of others. With a retentive memory for facts and 
details, a keen perception of affairs, and quick reasoning powers, 
he arrives at mental conclusions by patient mental labor. In social 
life he is unreserved in his conversation, warm in his friendship, and 
cordial in his intercourse with all. 
45 . 109 




f , h 




siiu'e rosiik'il tlicic. They have always held a respectable position 
ill society, and enjoyed the general respect and esteem of their 
contemporaries. This was especially true of James English, the 
father of the governor. He acquired a competent estate and reared 
a large family, comprising six sons and three daughters, all of 
whom lived to years of maturity. The sons were prosperous busi- 
ness men in the place of their nativity. The grandfather of Gov- 
ernor English, Captain Benjamin English, was a shipmaster, and 
commanded several vessels plying between New Haven and 
foreign ports. During the Presidency of Mr. Jefferson he was 
appointed to an otlice in the custom-house of his native town, 
which he iieid up to tiie time of his death, in 1807. The father of 
Ca[)tain English was killed by the British troops under General 
Tryon, who invaded Connecticut in 1779. And it may be added 
here that both the governor and his paternal ancestors have been 
uninterruptedly identified with the Democratic party since the 
organization of the government under the Federal Constitution. 

The educational advantages enjoyed by the subject of our sketch 
were limited to the rudimental teachings common to the schools of 
the day. That they were circumscribed, is attested by the i'act that 
they were interrupted at a period of his life when the tender mind 
is most susceptible to instruction. 

Mr. English gave evidence in his early youth of that remarkable 
self-reliance and independence of thought and action which have 
distinguished him, in his private as well as public life, from childhood 
to mature age. It has been his uniform habit to think and act for 
himself under all circumstances. He has always been firm and 
decided, without obstinacy persistent and determined, without 
rashness or presumption. From the time when, a mere child, he 
insisted upon earning his own livelihood, and obtained his father's 
reluctant consent to strike out a course for himself, and engaged to 
labor on a farm some thirty miles from home, and through all the 
various enterprises by which he accumulated an ample fortune, he 
reliid on his own resourccf^, and prosecuted his extended business 
112 



with that intelligence, activity, and perseverance, which could not 
fail to command success, and all by liis own unaided exertions. 
When about to embark in the lumber trade, a wealthy friend, who 
appreciated his capacity, integrity, and aptitude for the manage- 
ment of an extended business, offered to advance a large sum of 
money and become interested in the transactions — the industry and 
intelligence of Mr. English to constitute an equivalent for the cap- 
ital to be invested. This proposition, although a liberal one, he 
gratefully declined, preferring to work out his fortune himself. 

He remained away from home for two years, diligently assisting 
in the labors of the farm, when he returned to his parents. He 
attended school for two years after he came back, devoting himself 
specially to the study of architectural drawing, in which he became 
signally proficient. He was then apprenticed to a master carpenter, 
and during his term of service made plans for several conspicuous 
edifices in New Haven, some of which still remain as ornaments of 
the city. 

On attaining his majority, in 1833, he immediately became a mas- 
ter-builder, and continued that pursuit for two years with great suc- 
cess. For a period of more tlian twenty years he was engaged in the 
lumber trade, both in New Haven and Albany. During this time 
he became the owner of several vessels, and established a freight 
line between New Haven and Albany, and Philadelphia. He 
prosecuted this extensive business with his accustomed intelligence 
and energy, and his exertions were rewarded with ample returns. 

For the last fifteen years he has been interested in large manufac- 
turing establishments in different parts of the State, to the number 
of fifteen, to which he has given much time and attention. He 
has been the principal manager of the business of the New Haven 
Clock Company, the largest concern of the kind in tlie world ; and 
in that capacity has visited Europe three several times to promote 
the sale of its wares. On the last occasion he remained abroad 
nearly a year, making a comijlete tour of Europe. He is also 
president of the Goodyear Metallic Rubber Shoe Company, one 
113 



^ JAMKS K. ENGLISH. 

of the largest estaMislmieiits of the kind in the United States, 
and an active diruetor in several other large and well-managed 
companies, all successfnlly prosecuting their several branches of 
industry. 

As a business man he is distinguished for practical sagacity, fore- 
cast, and sound judgment. In the numerous enterprises with 
which he has been connected, his penetration and discernment 
have rarely been at fault, and his associates have always accepted 
Jiis suggestions and advice with unhesitating confidence. The re- 
sult is seen in the large fortune he lias acquired, and which ho un- 
ostentatiously and quietly enjoys, dispensing a liberal hosjiitality, 
and bestowing large sums upon charitable and philanthropic 
objects, as well as aiding industrious and deserving young men to 
successfully establish themselves in business. And it is worthy of 
mention, in this connection, that his entire wealth has been the result 
of legitimate business transactions, Mr. English never having been 
a '• speculator " in any sense of the word. 

The connection of Governor English with political life dates 
back more than twenty years, and during that period he has been 
constantly in some public employment. Being a man of innate 
modesty, and never seeking distinction or notoriety of any kind, 
offices of e\ery description have been thrust upon him, frequently 
against his wi.shes, and occasionally in spite of his earnest remon- 
strances. He was for many years in the municipal councils of his 
native city and town, and also a member of both branches of the Le- 
gislature, having been elected to the Senate for several successive 
years. He was chosen a member of Congress in 1S61, and again in 
1 86S, serving through the first four yeai-s of the Eebelliou. He was 
on the Committee on Naval Atfairs in the 3Tth Congress, and so effi- 
cient and valuable were his services in that capacity, and so highly 
were they appreciated by the Navy Department, that upon the 
coming in of the next Congress, a new organization of the Naval 
Committee involving some changes as a matter of coui-se, and Mr. 
Colfax, in advance of being chosen speaker, having promised to sub- 



JAMES E. ENGLISH. 5 

stitute Mr. Brandagee, a Eepnblican from tlie New London Dis- 
trict, in place of Mr. English, Mr. Welles personally and earnestly 
solicited the retention of Mr. English, stating that it was liiglily 
important that his services should be retained aa a member of that 
committee. He served on the Committee on Public Lands in the 
38th Congress. Though an earnest Democrat in principle and 
from conviction, he zealously supported the war measures of the 
administration, voting for the abolition of slavery in the District 
of Columbia, and for tlie National Emancipation Act. He, how- 
ever, opposed the Legal Tender Bill and the National Bank system. 
He foresaw the pernicious tendency of those measures, and the 
arguments by which he resisted their passage have never been 
answered, while the disastrous effect npou the industrial and 
commercial interests of the country attests the soundness of his 
reasoning. Although possessing large manufacturing interests to 
be benefited by class legislation, he has ever been a strenuous 
opponent of protection for the sake of protection, and a warm 
advocate of all measures of revenue reform. 

He was chosen governor in 1867, carrying the election by his 
personal popularity, at a time when nearly every State in the Union 
was under the domination of the Republicans, thus giving the 
first check to tlie usurpations of that powerful organization, and 
turning back the tide of fanaticism. He was re-elected in 1868, 
and again in 1870. And it is no more than justice to him to say, 
that the present prosperous condition of the great Democratic 
party throughout the country and its steadily increasing strength, 
are in a large measure to be ascribed to the revolution in Connec- 
ticut which Governor English inaugurated and ccmducted to a 
triumphant consummation. He is a firm believer in the right of 
the States to manage their own domestic concerns in tlieir own 
way, and the points made by him, in his several messages and other 
State papers, in defense of this right, have been most felicitously 
put, and never successfully answered. 

He was nominated as one of the Presidential electors of the 
115 



g JAMKS E. ENOLISH. 

State at large in the campaign of 1S(JS, and was a conspienous 
candidate for tlic Presidency before the Democratic National 
Convention. 

Govern. .r En-li#li has taken an absorbing interest in the cause 
of education, having repeatedly urged upon the Legislature, in his 
otiieial capacity, the establishment of a system of education which 
should open the schools to every child iu the State without distinc- 
tion, aud free of all charge for tuition. And nothing but his pei-se- 
verin<» exertions and great pei-sonal influence could have overcome 
the strong opposition with which the proposition was received on 
its inception. And the indigent people of Connecticut, whose 
otispring have free access to the excellent schools of the State on 
the same footing as the children of the opulent, owe that inestimable 
privilege to the wise benevolence and enlightened statesmanship 
of Governor English. He may justly claim the distinction, accorded 
him by the friends of education throughout the State, of being 
" the father of the free-school system," while his valuable services 
in the higher walks of instruction have been recognized in his 
appointment as one of the councilors of the Sheffield Scientific 
School connected with Yale College. 

Having summed up the most conspicuous events of his life, and 
referred, although superficially, to his public career, it only remains 
for us to present a hasty . ;id imperfect view of the attributes of 
his character and the estimation in which he is held by those among 
whom his days have been spent, aud who are qualified to appreciate 
his excellence and the beneficent influence which he has constantly 
exerted upon society. 

As a man of sound sense and practical wisdom in all that re- 
lates to the every day concerns of life, Mr. English is pre-eminent 
among his fellows. He is a man of quick perception, fine faculties, 
with a power of generalization quite extraordinary in one of his 
habits of life. His reasoning powers are uncommon, and he 
has a ready, thorough appreciation of the force of an argu- 
ment presented in a controversial discussion. He makes no pre- 
116 



JAMES E. ENGLISH. 7 

tensions as a scholar, but he writes fluently and with precision, 
conveying his meaning in terse and well-chosen language. He has 
great executive ability, and the functions of his high ottice are 
performed with that degree of skill, intelligence, and integrity 
which insures a successful administration. He is liberal, philan- 
thropic, and gives freely of his large wealth in aid of every charity 
and every well-directed public enterprise. He enjoys the unmixed 
respect and esteem of his neighbors, and has troops of warm friends 
to whom he has endeared himself by countless acts of humanity 
and kindness. He has a sound constitution, is full of activity and 
vigor, of regular, abstemious habits, and leads a blameless life, illus- 
trated by intelligent benevolence and warm-hearted friendship. 
117 




^L-Vl. 



^ ////^^.vC^ 




SMITH M. WEKD. 

*HE subject of this sketch, Hon. Smith M. Weed, is, and 
has been from childhood, a resident of Plattsburg, Clinton 
County, N. Y., to which place his parents removed from 
Belmont, Franklin County, N. Y., where Mr. Weed was 
born on the 26th day of July, 1833. His father, EosweU A. Weed, 
was born in New Hampshire, and was a man of very considerable 
position, and a man of marked character and strict integrity. Ilis 
mother was the daughter of Smith Mead, Esq., a prominent citizen 
of Clinton County. 

Mr. Weed, having received an academical education, commenced 
the study of law, and after being admitted to practice in the Su- 
preme Court, entered the Law School at Harvard College, and 
graduated in 1857, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He 
immediately commenced the practice of law at Plattsburg, and 
has ever since been one of the leading lawyers in Northern New 
York. 

In 1859 he married a daughter of Col. Miles Standish, of Platts- 
burg, a lineal descendant of Col. Miles Standish, of Plymouth, and 
has three children, two sons and a daughter. As soon as he began 
the practice of law he took a prominent position, not only in his 
profession, but in all matters of interest to the community in which 
he resides, and has always been foremost in all entei-prises that 
tended to benefit the locality in which he Uved. He is noted for his 
enterprise, his energy, and his liberality. He began early to buy 
and sell real estate ; and has been one of the largest dealers in lands 
in Northern New York, and has done very much to improve and 
build up the village in which he resides. 
119 



Diiriiii,' llio i-fliclli.'ii, Ik- \v;is iiii iiclivc, oaniist War Dciiun-i-at ; 
8ni>portiiijjr, by word umi dood, the Adiniiiistratioii in tho jirosoeu- 
tion of tho war for nil U'<!;itiiiuito piirpot^es; at tlio same tiiiio, claiin- 
iiijj niul oxori'isiiio;, fearlessly and openly, tho ritjht to differ witli tho 
party in i>ower, whenever they attempted to prostitute the army to 
tiie acei>niplishment of party jnn-poses, or use their power to abridge 
tho rights of loyal eitizens. Notieeable among his acts in support 
of his eountry, in her hour of peril, he, in tho winter of lSl)l-6'J, and 
before any bounties were paid to volunteers by State or General 
(toverniiient, paid, from his own funds, fifteen hundred dollai-s in 
bounties to the members of one compaiiy, to induce them to volun- 
teer. 

Mr AVeed is an earnest, active political worker, and hiUfi, for the 
last ten years, been one of tl\e lo;»ding spirits in the politics of the 
State, and particularly in the nortliern j>ortion, and luis been mainly 
instrumental in pivducing the great political changes in tliflt part 
of the State. 

His fii-st appearance in State politics was in the Assembly of 
18(>r>, to which he was elected by a largo majority. His eminent 
talents weiv at once iveognized, and ho took a leading part in all of 
the important measures of that session, and, although tho House 
contained many able men, he was, by common consent, conceded to 
be a leader. In that Assembly be voted to ratify the Amendment 
to the Oonstitutiiui abolishing slavery, and supported bis vote by an 
oarni'st aiul able speech. His views were, at that time, somewhat in 
advance of those of some of his party ; but he was fully sustained 
by the subsequent action of the Democratic Convention. 

He was unanimously re-nominated for the Assembly of 1860, and 
after a very severe contest, was i-e-elected. His prominence in the 
Assembly of 1S65 secured him the nomination of tho Democratic 
party for Speaker, and he received the full vot« of his party for that 
position. During this session, he was tlie rocognized leader of bis 
party in the Assembly, and fully sustaine«i his previous reputation 
for ability, integrity, auil fearles-ness. 
123 



S M I T n M . W E E D . 3 

Mr. Weed was again unanimously re-nominated for, and although 
his district was largely Eepublican, and his opponent a very strong 
man, he was elected by a fair majority to, the Assembly of 186T. 
In that body he took an active part in all matters of public interest, 
and was, as in the prior sessions, a recognized leader, not only of his 
party, but of the Assembly. 

During these three sessions of the Legislature, Mr. Weed intro- 
duced, and secured the passage of many important measures, among 
the more noted of which was wliat is commonly known as the Free 
School Act; which act secures free scliools to all of the inhabitants 
of thia State; and the act to aid in building tlie Whitehall and 
Plattsburg Eailroad, a road of great importance to this State, of 
wliich enterprise he was one of the original projectors ; and the suc- 
cess of which, thus far, is, in a great measure, due to liis labors. 

lie was unanimously elected President of the Village of Platts- 
burg in 1865, was re-elected in 1800, and declined re-election in 1867. 

Mr. Weed was nominated by the Democrats, as a delegate at 
large to the Constitutional Convention, which met at Albany on the 
4th of June, 1867. He took an active part in the delil)erations and 
debates of that body, until it adjourned over the time of the general 
election, at which the results of their deliberations were to have been 
submitted to the people ; after which he took no interest in the pro- 
ceedings of the Convention, and never signed the Constitution that 
was finally framed for submission, or drew his per diem as a member. 

He was selected as counsel for the managers on the part of the 
Assembly, on the impeachment of Eobert C. Dorn, Canal Commis- 
sioner, before the Court of Appeals and the Senate, as a Court of 
Impeachment, in the summer of 1868. Mr. Weed took the loading 
part in that important prosecution, and his arguments upon ques- 
tions raised dm-ing the trial, and, at its close, show that he was fully 
master of the Law of Impeachtnent, as well as the facts of tha^ par- 
ticular case, and added greatly to his reputation as a lawyer. 

In the fall of 1869, Mr. Weed was nominated for the position of 
Justice of the Supreme Court, by the Democrats of the Fourth Ju- 
121 



4 S M r TII M . \V K E n . 

(liciiil District, hut Cult cuin|K'l]cd to decline the nomiuatioTi ; never 
theless, he was voted for in about one-half of the District, and the 
result in those localities indicate that, had he consented to run, he 
would have been elected : in a district, too, which is ordinarily from 
12,000 to 15,000 against the Democrats. 

Mr. "Weed accepted the nomination to the Assembly of 1871, be- 
au?e it was thought his nomination would materially strengthen 
the ticket in his county and Congressional District. The result 
showed, the wisdom of the nomination, as he was elected without 
any effort hi his hfhaJf, \iy nearly 1,700 majority, and carried with 
him the State and County ticket, and secured the election of a De- 
mocratic member of Congress from that district, for the first time in 
twenty yeara. 

As a debater, Mr. Weed is clear, earnest, forcible, and, when the 
occasion warrants, eloquent. He is gentlemanly, courteous, but de- 
termined. He has always been independent in word and action — 
bowing to no power, save the will of the people — fawning to none 
for place, but free, outspoken, and determined in advocating what 
he believes to be right, and in denouncing what he believes to be 
wrong, whatever might be the effect upon his own political pros- 
pects. His independence and integrity have won him the I'espect, 
confidence, and love of the people of this State. 

Among the number of such acts during the session of 1871, his 
I'cport in favor of the repeal of what is known as the "Erie Classifi- 
cation Bill," is conspicuous. It is one of the ablest reports ever 
made to the Legislature — is clear, conclusive,, and convincing — and 
should be read by every person who has the good of American in- 
stitutions at heart, and who believes in honest and fair dealing. 
This one act'has given Mr. Weed a world-wide reputation. 

During the latter part of the session of 1871, Mr. Weed was 
brutally assaulted in the Assembly at Albany, by James Irving, a 
desperate character, then a member from the City of New York. 
Mr. Weed had incurred the enmity of Irving by his determined op- 
position to all Legislative raids u))on individuals or corporations, for 
122 



SMITH M. WEED. 5 

the purpose of persecution or plunder. Irving tried to get Mr. Weed 
to quarrel with him ; failing iu that, and finding he would not be 
driven from his duty by bullying and threats, Irving struck him a 
dastardly blow in the face, at a moment when his attention was 
diverted by conversation with another member. Mr. "Weed, althougli 
quite seriously injured, coolly prevented Irving striking him again, 
and as soon as others had secured Irving, turned and left him. His 
self-control at this time undoubtedly saved his life. Irving resigned 
to avoid expulsion, and the Assembly, on the report of the Commit- 
tee of Investigation, by a unanimous vote, exonerated Mr. "Weed, 
and resolved that, hud Irving not resigned, they would iiave ex- 
pelled Iiim. 

Mr. Weed, by his course in this trying matter — by his coolness, 
self-control and manliness — won the esteem of all honorable men, and 
received the sympathy of all. 

Mr. Weed is still a young man ; has, by his own exertions, amassed 
a considerable fortune ; lives in moderate style ; keeps an open house 
for all who come ; is known at home as the IWend of the poor man ; 
and has the personal esteem and respect of all men who know hira, 
and whose esteem and respect an honest man would desire. 
123 



SILAS C. HERRING. 

f\ROMlNENT amoug those who have earned the enviable 
and significant distinction of being known aa "self-made 
men," must be placed the subject of this sketch. His career 
has been throughout life a notable one. He has achieved 
reputation unaided by wealth and influence, but by dint of native 
talent and ingenuity seconding energy and hard labor. And this 
fame, at once deserving and honorable, has not been won on the 
battle-field or in politics, but in the pursuits of one of those indus- 
trial arts which confer the greatest possible benefits upon mankind, 
because the most enduring. The name of Silas C. Herring must 
always be remembered with respect by the mercantile community of 
this country ; for this distinguished manufacturer, by his single in- 
\ention of an iron safe, which neither fire nor the tools of a burglar 
can penetrate, gave to every person possessed of valuables the same 
security from loss by accident or crime, that the lamp invented by 
Sir Humphrey Davy gave to the lives of miners. 

It is not, therefore, exaggerating the claims of Mr. Herring upon 
public recognition to rank him among those who are known as ben- 
efactors of society. But whether or not we can so rank him, it is 
none the less true that his life is a striking illustration of the invent- 
ive genius of Americans, and is, therefore, full worthy of record. 

Silas C. Herring is the grandson of a gallant soldier of the Revo- 
lution, who attested his devotion to the then embryo reijublic by 
funning part of the little band of braves which fought the British 
forces at the battle of Bunker Hill. Mr. Herring himself was born 
at Shrewsbury, Rutland county, Vermont, on the Yth of September, 
18U3. It must be remarked here, however, that his parents were 
125 



not natives of ViTuiont. His fatlier, grandfather and great-crand 
father were all bora at Dediiam, Ma33., hence he can, it' so disposed, 
justly elaini the cradle of the Pilgi'ims as his State. And he can all 
the more justly make this claim, because his yeai-s were few iu Ver- 
mont. When only of the age of five, his parents removed from the 
C4reen Mountain State to Brooklield, Mass., the place of his moth- 
er's nativity, where thoy settled on a farm. Here he remained until 
he had reached his seventeenth year, spending his days in the pur- 
suits of a farmer, as soon as he had grown old enough to render as- 
sistance to his father. The summer and autumn months were passed 
in labor, but wlaen the frosts of winter had killed vegetation, and 
the snows covered the life lying dormant beneath the earth, he laid 
iiside the plough for the scbool-book and made the bleak weeks 
ciieerful by improving his mind. At this time the educational re- 
sources of Massachusetts, though far in advance of those of the other 
States, were far inferior to what they now are. It consequently fol- 
lows that much of Mr. Herring's employment in his early days was 
unaided by teachers, but was the voluntary occupation of a lad 
keenly alive to the importance of mental training, and anxious to 
become proficient in the various branches of education. 

When the day came for him to go forth from the parental home 
into the world, there to seek his fortune, Mr. Herring was not alto- 
gether unprepared. He had acquired a fair stock of knowledge, and 
this, united with a hopeful self-rehance, was a promise, the realiza- 
tion of which his perseverance and urn-emitting labors finally made 
good. He was about seventeen years of age when he turned his 
back upon the old homestead, and with a full heart and a strong 
will started on the real journey of his life. An uncle of his resided 
in Albany — a merchant engaged in the wholesale grocery and prod- 
uce business in the then Liliputian capital of the State of New 
York. Entering the store of this relative in the capacity of a clerk, 
he for six years served him faithfully and energetically. At the ex- 
piration of this period of time his uncle, in appreciation of his fidelity 
and integrity, advanced him the sum of three thousand dollai's with 
126 



SILAS 0. HEERINQ. 



wliich to begin business on his own account. In co-partnership with 
one Mr. Gough, he engaged in the lottery and exchange business, 
in which he was very successful, saving in a few years some ten 
thousand dollars \\ith which he moved to the city of New York, 
having decided upon pursuing some other calling more congenial to 
his tastes. 

It was during the winter of 1834-5 that the firm of Herring & 
Greene opened a wholesale grocery establishment in New York. 
Their capital amounted to about twelve thousand dollars, and for 
some months their business prospei-ed well. In December of 1835, 
however, the memorable fire destroyed their store, but as they were 
insured they would have suifered comparatively little loss had not 
the insurance companies failed to meet theu* liabilities and gone into 
bankruptcy. The young firm, however, stood well with the mercan- 
tile community, and as their credit was good it was not long befoi'e 
they were again embarked in business. On their resumption they 
took in a third partner, and the tliree men worked energetically 
until the commercial crisis of IS 37, when they, with many others, 
failed. Every dollar they possessed was given up to their creditors, 
so that after a settlement had been effected, Mr. Herring found 
himself once more at the foot of the ladder, as poor as when he em- 
barked in life. 

The old saying, that " it is an ill wind that blows nobody good," 
is singularly applicable in Mr. Herring's case. What, appeared to 
him an irreparable misfortune when he failed, was really the event 
which made possible his present reputation and affiuence. We have 
all heard of the California miner who was the " most unlucky man 
in the diggings." He had spent months in searching for gold, 
and precious little of the precious metal could he find. At length 
he decided upon abandoning mining and turning his attention to 
agriculture. He settled upon a piece of land and began farming. 
Needing water, he started to dig a well and the old luck attended 
him. Not a drop of water could be found, but he did find one of 
the richest veins of gold in the State. HI luck made Mr. Herring 
127 



!.b;iiidon the grocery business, and seldom before has ill luck in any- 
thing benefited a man as it did him. Three years were passed in 
sharp sti-uggles with adverse fortunes, wlien a circumstance occur- 
red which settled the question of the future. 

For many years prior to 184i), mercantile men had sought in vain 
for some material whi<;h, constructed into boxes or chests, would 
secm-e their valuables from destruction by fire. The want was a very 
serious one and had occasioned severe losses, besides ruining more 
than one unfortunate man. In 1840 what were known as fire-chests 
were nothing more than iron boxes lined witli wood ! It may ap- 
pear laughable that such a combustible material should have been 
used as a protection against fire, but it must be borne in mind that 
wood is a poor conductor of heat, and as it was always specially 
prepared for the purpose it was better than nothing at all. Never- 
theless, wood-filled chests gave but poor satisfaction. If they could 
be got at before they became too hot, their contents were preserved, 
but if the fire enveloped a building and prevented access to them, 
they were as little protection to valuables as if they had been so 
much paper. The first real improvement was made when Mr. 
Wilder began the manufacture of safes lined with plaster of Paris. 

" The story of the origin of this plan of ' fire-proofing' is a little 
romantic," says a pamphlet before us, containing a history of " Her- 
ring's Patent Champion Safes." " It is said that an industrious me- 
chanic wa-s one day engaged in making moulds or casts with plaster 
of Paris. Having finished his labors, he was preparing to wash up, 
and for this purpose he attempted to heat some water in a kettle in 
which lie had mi.xed his calcined plaster. After stirring his fire im- 
patiently on several occasions, he was sui-prised to find that the 
water did not warm up with its accustomed rapidity, and a further 
in8j)ectii)n showed the bottom of the kettle retained the debris of 
his plaster-mixings. About the same time an old and well-known 
type founder of this city, (New York,) now deceased, but whose sons 
are still prominent as his successors, had noticed and remarked the 
non-conducting power of i>laater of Paris wlifii mixed witii water. 



SILAS 0. HEERINO. 5 

as lie was constantly using it in his business, and had actually con- 
structed or lined a safe with this fire-proof composition as a protec- 
tion for valuables in his possession." This safe, the first one ever 
fiUed with plaster of Paris, and made nearly forty years ago. is now 
n Mr. Herring's store in New York. 

In 1840 there was a great trial of safes at CoflPee-lioii-e Slip, foot 
of Wall street in New York, the origin of it being a challenge fiuiu 
the manufacturer of the newly-introduced Salamander Safe. All 
the leading fire-proof chests then mad ewere subjected to the test, and 
all were destroyed, save the Salamander, which passed thi'ough the 
fiery ordeal successfully. Mr. Herring was a witness to this trial, 
and he resolved to engage in the business of manufacturing safes, 
perceiving, with intuition, that it was one capable of indefinite en- 
largement, and that the safes themselves were open to vast improve- 
ments, if thought and study as well as energy and pei'severance were 
devoted to them. He had previously made the acquaintance of 
Enos Wilder, the owner of the patent for the Salamander Safes, 
and this gentleman, who was engaged in manufacturing then, ob- 
serving Mr. Herring's enterprise and general business capacity, in- 
vited him to become the agent in the United States for the sale of 
the Salamander. 

Accepting the oflTer, Mr. Herring in 1841 began business. At 
first his sales were few, but with that shrewdness and tact which 
have been characteristic of the man throughout life, he deliberately 
lost money for a time, with a view of great profits in the future. 
All, or nearly all the commissions he received a- agent for Wilder's 
patent, he expended in advertising, and "Herring's column" in the 
newspapers became a household word. He furthermore placed his 
safes in many of the principal hotels, giving the use of them free of 
charge. As is always the case, his energy resulted favorably to him. 
In 1844, three years after he. entered into the business, he ceased 
holding the position of an ageut, having then purchased the sole 
right to manufacture the safes, paying Mr. Wilder a royalty of one 
cent per pound. 

i2d 



6 SILAS 0. HE KBING. 

It 19 interestiug to note the progress of Mr. Herring's business. 
In 1841 his firet stock of safes was contained "in a little room not 
more than twenty by forty feet, and though prices then only ranged 
from $40 to $250, the sales of safes were very slow. Shortly after- 
ward the entire building, in which was the fii-st sales-room, was 
turned into a manufactory. The basement was the blacksmith's 
shop, or forging-room, and filing-room. The first fioor was the sales 
and paint-room. The two upper stories were occupied by the iron- 
workers, who cut the iron, framed the safes, and by the one solitary 
locksmith, wlio could furnish all the locks as fast as the safes were 
ready for them. This diminutive manufactory was situated on the 
corner of Water and Do Peyster streets, and it is related of Mr. 
Herring that when niglit came "he would put on his overalls and 
paint the safes himself." 

Time passed, dui-ing which Mr. Herring was unremitting in his 
endeavor to remove the many imperfections which existed in the 
Wilder safes. He studied and experimented until he had succeeded 
in making a safe which he felt convinced was superior to anything 
manufactured in the United States. Then it was that he sent out 
a challenge to aU the safe manufacturers of the country to test their 
safes with his. Gaylor, Delano, Franklin, of Brooklyn, and Scott, 
of Philadelphia, were the other principal safe-makers of the day, and 
they took up the challenge. A great trial was had at the foot of 
Wall street, where an immense brick furnace was constructed, into 
which the several safes were placed and subjected for many hours to 
the heat of a raging fire. One by one the lival safes yielded to the 
intense heat, but the Wilder safe resisted the flames to the last, and 
when it was opened its contents were found uninjured. As Mr. 
Herring had advertised his challenge extensively, the notoriety thus 
given the matter had awakened considerable interest on the part of 
the public in the result of the trial, and, as a consequence, his signal 
success was announced in almost every paper in the country, thereby 
benefiting his business materially. Mr. Herring had a large pic- 
ture made representing the trial scene, in which he had Horace 
180 



SILASC. II BERING. 7 

Greeley, in his white coat, painted in the foreground. This picture 
was for many years used as a sign for his warehouse. The great 
fires of 1845, however, did more to estabhsh the reputation of his 
safes than anything else. " When," says a writer, " old-fashioned 
fire-proof securities proved false to their profession, and even solid 
vaults of stone and brick yielded to the fiery adversary, the Herring 
Salamander won its first laurels, and was accepted by the commu- 
nity as the ' coming safe,' and stepped into the position it has since 
so weQ. retained as ' the best security from fire now known.' " 

After some time passed in the building already described, Mr. 
HeiTing was compelled, by reason of the great increase in his busi- 
ness, to move his manufactory to a large building in Washington 
street, where he gave employment to twenty men. In 1849 a sec- 
ond move was found necessary, and he erected his present factory 
on the west side of the city of ISTew York. It is located at the 
junction of Ninth avenue with Hudson street and extends from 
Thirteenth to Fourteenth streets. The building covers a frontage 
of two hundred feet on Hudson street, is five stories in height, with 
a basement, occupies half an acre of ground, and, with the site, cost 
over one himdred and twenty thousand dollars. Each floor is di- 
vided into compartments for work of a special kind, "the second 
floor being appropriated more especially for the construction of 
burglar-proof safes, while the ordinary fire-proofs are made princi- 
pally on the fourth floor, and the locks and vaults and vault doors 
on the fifth floor. The engine that propels the machinery is in the 
basement, where are also the kUns, and a shear, operated by steam, 
for cutting boiler plates. Here the bar and plate iron are stored 
and the japanning is executed. The first floor is divided into rooms 
for filling, for painting, the offices, and awareroom for finished safes. 
The cabinet work is executed in an adjacent four-story building, and 
the foundry work in a distinct establishment, at 740 Greenwich St." 
In addition to this manufactory, there is a large factory and store 
in Philadelphia, and the same in Chicago. One would suppose that 
these accommodations are ample for all purposes, but the contrary is 



really the case. So rapidly has Mr. irerriiij,''s business increased, 
and so steadily is it increasing that the present resources have been 
found too limited. His iii-in have consequently purchased thirty- 
four lots, fronting on the Eleventh avenue, between Twentieth and 
Twenty-fii-st streets, in the city of N'ew York, with the view to 
building thereon. 

The contrast between the business now carried on by Mr. Her- 
ring and that carried on by him when he moved to Washington 
street, will be shown in the number of men in his employ now and 
then. In 1849 twenty men composed his entire force. At the pres- 
ent writing, his firm fm-nishes work to not less than five hundred 
men in the cities of New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. In 1845 
a safe costing five hundred dollara was thought a wonder ; to-day 
Mr. Herring constructs safes or vaults costing fifty thousand dollars 
each. 

Mr. Herring's career is so associated with the history of fire-proof 
safes in this country, that the narration of the one may be regarded 
as the record of the other. He continued manufacturing under the 
"Wilder patent until 1852, when he ceased, having paid Mr. Wilder 
one hundred and fifty-four thousand dollars royalty in four years. 
The circumstance which led him to the change is interesting. In 
May, 1850, Mr. Spear, a chemist of Philadelphia, discovered that car- 
bonated chalk, a residuum in the manufacture of mineral water, was 
superior to any other substance then known as a non-conductor of 
heat and a resistant of fire. This composition he submitted to Mr. 
Herring, who at once engaged in experiments with it, and becoming- 
satisfied that it indeed possessed all the qualities claimed for it. 
paid Mr. Spear a large sum in cash for the secret, the condition 
being that the patent was to be taken out in his (Herring's) own 
name. This was done, and in 1851, having manufactured a safe 
in which the new composition was used, Mr. Herring took it to the 
London Exhibition of that year and challenged all the European 
manufacturers to a trial by fire. No maker ventured to compete 
with him. Mr. Herring then claimed that his safe was the best 
132 



SILAS C. H BERING. 9 

protection against burglars manufactured, and to prove his assertion, 
placed one thousand dollars in the drawer and announced that any 
person who could open the safe and get at the drawer could have 
the money ; and he gave experimenters the liberty of using keys or 
not as suited them best. Mr. Herring then started for Paris, re- 
mained there nearly one month, and on his return found that his 
safe was still locked and the money secure in the drawer, having 
defied every effort to open it. 

The celebrity attained by "Herring's Patent" or " Champion " 
Safe is such that there is not a merchant in the country unfamiliar 
with its merits. Many years were devoted by Mr. Herring to its 
improvement, until to-day it is probably as perfect as human skill 
can make it. Not less than fifty thousand of the Herring Safes 
have been manufactured and sold, and such is the public confidence 
in them that the demand for them increases daily. Their value has 
been thoroughly tested in numerous fires, among which we may 
name the great conflagration at Portland, Maine, where every one 
of Mr. Herring's Safes preserved its contents uninjured, although 
subjected for several days to a heat of unprecedented intensity. It 
is this absolute security against loss which has given these safes their 
pre-eminence above all others manufactured, either in the United 
States or in Europe. Numerous medals and diplomas attest the 
value which impartial judges, appointed by industrial societies, place 
upon the " Herring Champion Safe." At the London Exhibition 
of 1851 it was awarded a medal ; at the Exhibition of the Industry 
of All Nations, held at New York in 1853, it took the first prize. 
At the Exposition Universelle, held at Paris in 1867, Mr. Herring's 
Safe was also awarded a medal of the first class, the judges thereby 
indicating his as the best on exhibition. 

Heretofore we have referred to fire-proof safes exclusively. There 
is, however, another description of safes which have of late become 
especially prominent. "We refer to the celebrated. Burglar-proof 
Sales, Vaults and Chests, in the manufacture of which, Mr. Hei- 
ring's firm are without a rival in the world. The subject of this 
133 



10 s I 1. A S O . U K K E I N G . 

sketch has spent iiiiich time in solviiiij tlio problem wlietlicr a safe 
could not be made absolutely invulnerable to all the apjjliances 
known to burglars, and the solution was finally made. In Sussex 
County, New Jersey, there is found large quantities of Franklinite 
ore, from which is manufactured a material possessing peculiar 
qualities. It is beautiful in appearance, and is as hard as the finest 
tempered steel, and marks glass with the facility of a diamond. 
With much ingenuity this composition is so interwoven with wrought 
iron rods that while it may be bent by repeated blows it cannot be 
broken, and as one metal is harder than the other in attempting to 
drill through them, the tools used will naturally pierce the soft metal 
faster than the hard one, and will necessarily have their points de- 
stroyed by working sideways. A writer on the subject says of these 
safes : " A first-class Banker's Chest, as constructed by this firm, 
consists of tbree casings, one of wrought iron with angle corners, a 
casing of patent " high and low steel welded," being Bessemer soft 
steel and hard cast-steel combined — drQl proof and sledge proof — a 
casing of patent crystallized iron, (known as the Patent Franklinite,) 
two inches thick, with wrought iron rods cast through it and pro- 
jecting rivets on both sides, so that the entire thickness is three and 
one-fourth inches. Such a safe," he adds, " will not only overcome 
any drill or cutting tool, but is also a resistant against sledging or 
battering, which has been the weak point in safes in which hardened 
metal has found an integral part. These safes are also secured by 
combination locks, of which the best form is the double lock, being 
two complete locks in one, or, in other words, it has two knobs and 
two dials, both of which can be set on entirely diflPerent combinations, 
and either one will open the lock or throw back the bolt independent 
of the other." 

No other manufacturer in the world has the right to make these 
safes, because the exclusive use of the Franklinite or crystallized iron 
and the patent " high and low steel welded" is secured to Mr. Her- 
ring's firm by letters patent, and it is the use of these metals that 
secures the safes uijainst the attacks of burglars. Pr;H'tii-al ex- 
134 



SILAS C. HEEEINQ. 11 

perience has demonstrated their extraordinary strength. At the 
Paris Exposition a test was made of the relative power of resistance 
of the Herring Burglar-pr(jof Safe and a Chatwood Safe — the lattei- 
being regarded the best made in Europe. The Chatwood safe had 
been made specially for the test of £600 which the mannfiicturer 
had offered, and was a grade higher than any he had on exhibition. 
Mr. Herring's was a third-class safe, but he nevertheless engaged in 
the competition without fear. Nor did the result belie his expecta- 
tions. A committee comprised of two Amei-icans, two Englishmen 
and a French Engineer, were appointed to deliver judgment. The 
test was the capacity of the safes for resisting forcible attempts to 
open them. An equal number of men set to work with wedges, 
crowbars and hammers, the Americans on the English safe, and the 
Englishmen on the American safe. In two hours and fifty-foui- 
minutes the Chatwood safe was open, while it took two English 
Civil Engineers and their three picked experts, armed with 101 dif- 
ferent tools, four hours and fourteen minutes to force open the 
Herring third class safe. The superiority of the latter was, of 
course, triumphantly demonstrated. In awarding to Mr. Herring 
the wager which depended upon the result, and which was given to 
charities, the committee ex^^ressed the formal opinion that " the 
Herring safe is the best in its capability of resisting drilling in- 
struments, gunpowder, steel wedges, crowbars, steel screws, or any 
kind of burglars' appliances.'' 

Another unsuccessful test was made in March, 1861, when a 
party of burglars endeavored to force an entrance into the Her- 
ring burglar-proof safe used by the New York Exchange Bank. 
They had from Saturday night to Monday morning in which to 
work. Having undermined the vault by digging a tunnel some 
seventy feet long under the adjoining building, they reached the 
base of the vault itself. They next proceeded to remove the front 
part of the heavy stone foundation, and having reached the large 
flagstone which formed the floor, they broke that by means of a 
jack-screw of great power and entered the vault. The burglars 
135 



13 BII.AS 0. 11 KKIJIN G. 

iioxt ftttomptod to drill into tlio safe. Some thirty holes were made 
in the outer i-.v^iiij?, hut when thoy came to the ceutre casino; the 
hardened iron turned the point of every tool. The dissection of the 
safe hy forcing the framework apart was next essayed, but all their 
efforts were futile, and the ruflians finally ahandoTied their nefarious 
work in despair. Over half a million of dollars were in the safe, 
and it is unquestionably true that every dollar would have been 
reached had the safe been that of any other maker. 

We have now shown, at some length, the superior excellence of 
the Champion Safe. To Mr. Herring belongs the credit for all the 
improvements which have made it what it is. A man of ordinary 
capacity could not have brought it to the state of perfection it has 
reached. Something more than mere business tact was required. 

Doubtless Mr. Herring spent many days and weeks in exjierimcnting 
with what may appear to the casual observer a trivial improvement, 
but which in reality forms an important addition to the strength of 
tbe safe. His was the work to study each point ; to discover what- 
ever was weak or wanting, and to remedy the difficiency ; to take up 
problems in its construction and to solve them ; to examine the de- 
tails, arrange and place them, each in its proper sphere, so that the 
whole might bo perfect. This is high mechanical art. It requires a 
certain genius which few men possess, and to the possession of which, 
in an eminent degree, must be attributed the great success Mr. Her- 
ring has achieved and the celebrity his safe has obtained. As we 
have before stated, the sales of the Champion Safes are enormous. 
They are to be found in all parts of the world, and so large is the de- 
uumd that it is necessary to keep a stock of about one thousand of 
them constantly on hand in the different warehouses. 

"Wliile devoting the greater part of his time to tlie manufacture 
of safes, Mr. Heri-ing has not been neglectful of other pui-suits. As 
a financier he has been prominent in New York. At different times 
he h:is been connected, »is Director or in other capacities, with the 
Broadway, and the Importer's and Trader's banks, the Manhattan and 
tlie Rroadwuv 8a\nngs banks, the Manhattan and the TS'ational Life 



13 



Insurance Companies, the Park Fire Insurance Companies, and thn 
Firemen's Fund Company, all of which are now floui-ishing and pros- 
perous institutions. Mr. Herring is also largely interested in the Ore- 
gon Iron Foundry of New York city, of the firm of Herring & Floyd, 
who are very largely engaged in the construction of gas works, and 
hold several valuable patents for improvements in making gas, 
which are being universally adopted throughout the United States, 
and has about a half million of doUars invested in different business 
entei-prises, on all of which he brings to bear the same energy, tact 
and shrewdness that have characterized his management of his safe 
manufactory. 

Although for many years one of the most prominent citizens of 
New York, and a man widely esteemed and respected, he has never 
sought the political field for honors. In 1847 and ISIS he served 
the metropolis of the country as an Assistant Alderman, and in 1849 
as Alderman, of the Ninth Ward, having been elected to that posi- 
tion by the Whig party, of which he was a member. For the sake 
of having a good post-oiEce where he has his model farm at Brita- 
field, Hampden county, Massachusetts, he also holds the commission 
of postmaster ; but as neither of these offices can be regarded as 
political, it may be said that Mr. Hei-ring has remained throughout 
life free from the not always favorable influences of partizan politics. 
He has, however, always been a devoted lover of his country. Dur- 
ing the Rebellion he attested his love for the Union by aiding and 
upholding the government, and he gave a son to the cause, who fell 
at the battle of Mnrfreesboro. 

As a philanthropist, Mr. Herring is generally and well known. 
Large hearted and generous, it is not strange that he should have 
spent no inconsiderable sum in relieving the distresses of others. We 
may not know how many, many times he has extended the hand of 
cliarity to the poor and needy, for the really charitable are those least 
disposed to parade their deeds of benevolence to the world ; but we 
do know that he has always been foremost in promoting enterprise 
designed to alleviate the sufferings of, or to benefit humanity. He 
137 



I, A S C . n E K E I i 



was one of tlie original incorporators of the Juvenile Asylum, and 
gave a large sum of money to that institution. Mr. Herring has 
also always taken a keen interest in the educational progress of the 
country, as he attested in 1858, when he purchased the entire library 
of the late Dr. Credner, professor of Theology in the University of 
Gressen, Germany, and presented it as a gift to the TJniversalist 
Theological Seminary at Clinton, in St. Lawrence county, New York. 
This library consisted of over 2,500 volumes, and was of great value. 
He has more recently contributed $5000 to the same institution for 
the erection of a fire-proof library building, which will cost over 
^10,000, and is now known and styled as the " Herring Library." 

Of Mr. Herring personally, we can speak in the highest praise. 
He is a man of sterling integrity and honor. During the long years 
of his extensive business experience, his reputation for honesty has 
never once been tarnished. His word has always been a bond never 
to be broken. Possessed of a thorough knowledge of men, he has 
always been able to gather around him those that could best appre 
ciate and understand his desires. And, perhaps, to this quality, is 
due his success more than anything else. As an inventor and manu- 
facturer he is singularly unselfish. He recognizes merit and aids the 
meritorious at every opportuirity. Believing in the old adage that 
one is never too old to learn, he has always been open to suggestions. 
The young inventor is never turned away. If a perfect stranger ex- 
hibits to him an idea of something that he thinks will improve his 
safes, he will examine and st\idy it carefully. Probably it is not worth 
anything, nevertheless Mr. Herring will not dismiss it until he has 
thoroughly convinced himself of its worthlessness. We have already 
referred to his skill and enterprise in the direction and government 
of the business to which he has been devoted assiduously and unre- 
mittingly during thirty yeai-s. Indeed nothing less than ability of 
a high order, and close personal application could have won for Mr. 
Herring the eminence and affluence he has attained. Some men 
have greatness thrust upon them, others reach the goal of their am- 
bition by dint of hard labor, by uncommon energy and by native 
138 



talent. To the latter class belongs the subject of this sketch. His 
was no rose-strewn path of life. Many rocks and thorns were on the 
road he traversed, and they bruised and stung him often before he 
had reached the desired haven. Meeting with many vicissitudes, 
exjjeriencing, in the fullest sense of the expression the ups and downs 
of the world, he pushed on, undaunted by reverses, keeping his eye 
steadily fixed upon the goal to which he aspired and never paused 
until it had been gained. And when we bear in mind that, amidst 
all the changes of fortune— all the disappointments and delays— he 
remained true to the early lessons of integrity which had been taught 
him, we can justly extend to Mr. Herring that meed of praise which 
belong to the deserving. 

In person, Mr. Herring is a man somewhat above the average 
height. His features are regular and expressive, his brow broad and 
ample, denoting more than ordinary intellectual ability, and his eyes 
deep-set and penetrating. He possesses a most genial and pleasant 
countenance. And, indeed, he is a most amiable gentleman— one of 
those men who, though his hair may turn gray, and lines furrow his 
cheek, never grow old. As a companion he is affable, sociable and 
entertaining. He enjoys a joke and has a hearty laugh for whatever 
is mirthful. Easily approached by all, making no distinctions of 
classes, assuming no superiority over others, it is not to be wondered 
at that he is beloved by all who know him. He is the spirit and life 
of a social party. Wherever Mr. Herring ha])pens to be, wit, humor 
and pleasure may be found. A close observer of mankind, and a 
great reader he forgets nothing and learns everything. As a conse- 
quence he is full of anecdotes, and his reminiscences, which he is fond 
of narrating, would, if written out and published, make a volume 
of more than ordinary interest. We know of no other man of his 
eminence who unites to business talent and large wealth, the graces 
and amenities of social life to as great a degree as he unites them. 
We are sure that his unvarying cheerfulness, his never-failing cour- 
tesy, and the franic, winm'ng smile which is habitual on his counten- 
139 



16 SILAS C. H KK KINO. 

anco, aro the best indications not only of his amiability of temper, 
but of the possession of a heart as light and free as an infant's, and 
of a career whoso past and present contains nothing for self-re- 
proach. 

140 




//, y.^y-"^"'"/ 



/ 



i^y^yj/Zf^y 



GEORGE OPDYKE. 



^PfTEOEGE OPDYKE stands prominent among the profound 
v¥M thinkers and writers on questions of political economy, at 
*-'*-^ the present day. Possessing rare sagacity, intuitive per- 
ception, comhined with deep research, his name is a tower of strength 
among financial men. His influence in the councils of the nation, 
during the dark days of the war, though unknown to the masses, 
was powerfully exercised, and forms an important chapter in the un- 
written history of the country. 

Mr. Opdyke was born about the year 1807, at Kingwood, Uun- 
terdon Co., N. J. He is a descendant, as his name indicates, of the 
time-honoied Knickerbockers. An ancestor of his, one Gysbert Op- 
dyke, as appears in the colonial history of New York, was Commissary- 
General under the Dutch Government, about the year 1640. At a 
later date the family settled in New Jersey. 

Mr. Opdyke's grandfather held the office of Justice of the Peace 
fifty years, and it is reported of him that his legal decisions, always 
cautiously and thoroughly considered, though occasionally appealed 
from, were never reversed. The father of Mr. Opdyke was eminent 
as a man of sound judgment and uprightness of character. He was 
often applied to by his neighbors to arbitrate in matters of dispute. 

George Opdyke commenced life as a farmer, and having enjoyed a 
few winter's schooling at the early age of sixteen assumed the role 
of teacher. Even in the discipline of his scholars, many of whom 
were older thanhimself, his able executive abilities were prominently 
indicated. Decisive, prompt, and fearless in the discharge of his du- 
141 



lii's. ill iliis, liis lli-st jnililir uiulortiikiiij;, ho was cuiinontly siuwss- 
(ul. A low y(>ais liilor, lio ooii\iuoiuvd tnulo in Clovi'laml, Ohio, 
whon thill now tlouiisliiiijc vilv was wnsidoml lo ho in llio far Wost. 
Not lonj? aflorwanl, wo liiul him in Now Orloans, oiiiiai^nl in tlio 
olothiiij? lraiU«. In lvS;?-J l>o tianslonva his hnsinoss to Now York 
Citv, whoiv l\o has siiuv romainod a prouiinont ai\il liiijldy snooosstul 
hnsinoss man. 

Mis lii-st aiipoaraiioo in tl»t> jiolilioalaiviia of wliivli wo liavo kiunv- 
hHl^sjt>, was as a »U'loi;ato to tho UntValo Convontion, whoiv ho sorvoa 
on tho ooinmillvv that frainod iho Kiw Soil rialforni. 

In K^.VS ho was ol^vtl^l to tl)o Sinto liO^ishituiv, and took a voiy 
|.n>niinont part in opposing? tlio i\nrnpt sohon\os for phmdoiing tho 
oily of vaUiahU> franoliistvs. Thiw yoai-s hitor. ho was olootoil Mayor 
of tho rity of Now York. 

In tl\o disol\!irgv> of his tmhious dutios »Inring tho torm of his otUi*o, 
ho distinjjuishiHl hiiiisolf as a man of oxtraorvliuarv oxoouiivo talont. 

<.>ur siKKV will tvot pormit us to jKirlioiilariKO tho many important 
aots of his administnUion. \Vo should ivmark, howovor, that tho 
suppi\\>ision of tho owr-mou»or.vhlo riot was duo, in givat jvirt, to las 
pi\>mpt division and ouoi-sotio action, during tho dark days that in- 
torvouovl Ikmwivu tho 13th and I7th of duly, ISlJa. Those who di>- 
siiv to iHHvmo familiar with tho history of 2sow York City dming 
tho ovonttul yivu-s l^ti'J and lSt>3, should not fail to mul Air, Op- 
dyko's Mayondty Uvvumonts, puhlishi-tl in ISiUi, by Hui\i «.<: Hough- 
ton. Thoy fvuiu a nt\it voUnno of nwuly 4t.X.1 i>agi>s. and contain 
ma HOI'S of s|KV»al intoavsi. 

Mr, l>|Hlyko wntinu»\l in tho dry gvods tnulo \mtil the bi'ginning 
of tho ymr l*^t>7. His kuowKnlgi^ of tho situation of national atVairs 
li\l hiu» to tho ^\nrxvt vxniclusion that legitimate business, on the 
awnigw would for « term l>e vmpivtiiablo, and he theivforv very 
wis^dy n^tinnl ft\uu an actiw i^utioii»j\tiou it\ the tmde whonMu he 
had aanimulattnl a handsome fortutie. Having Kvn apjHunteii a 
deU^tv to the Co«»ventiou fo'- tho Uevisiou of the Ooustitutiou of 
14-2 



OKOUGE Of'OVKK. ?, 

the Btate of New Yurk, ho gave the (p-nnUir jiortion of his time to 
tbit irijportaiit work during the year 18(J8, 

Mr. Opdyke is a special partner in the ext^jnaive dry goo'ls hoiiHC 
of W. I. Peake & Co,, and ako in the enteq>rising clothing firrns of 
Henry & John Paret, and Oarharfc, Whitford & Co. He ia a dir^^ctor 
in one of the largest hanks in the city, presi'l/^nt of an insurance 
company, and the sf^nior member of the well known, enterprising, 
and high-tone<l hanking firm of George Opdyke & Co., which was 
formed in the fall of 18G8, and which lias, on acc<^;unt of the wide reputa- 
tion of Mr. Opdyke, rapidly grown into an immense huainess. The firm 
receives deposits from banks, bankers, and mercbtnts throughout \ 
th'; cfjuntry, against which drafts at sight are made, the same as if 
the money were deposited in bank. The firm also does a large basinesa 
in selling bonfls for railway and other corporations. In the banking 
business, Mr. Opdyke bis associated with him as partners, his sons, 
George Francis and Henry B. Opdyke, Mr. William A. Stevens, and 
. Mr. Herman Blennerhasset, all of whom are active, able, and highly 
esteemed. 

As a political economist, Mr. Opdyke deserves to stand in the 
front rank. He published an excellent treatise upon the subjfjct of 
political economy in J 851, and it is to be regretted iivxt hia innate 
modesty restrained him from putting it prominently before the pub- 
lic. It was unfortunat'i that the house to whom he intnisted the 
publication of this interesting work retired from active basiness soon 
after the issue of the first edition, and for lack of proper appreciation 
on the part of Mr. Opdyke of the merits of his own production, it 
was allowed to go out of print. 

The ideas advanced in this work relative to paper money are re- 
m/irkably clear and sound, and it is a matter of surprise that such 
a comprehensive view of the science of money, and especially /joper 
money, should have been promulgated at that period, when the 8ul>- 
ject had not a tithe of the interest attached to it that it has at the 
present time. In the desei-vedly popular works of John Stuart Mill, 
143 . 



4 OKOIttiE Ol-DYKK. 

Ailaiu Smith, Henry C. Ciircy, aiul otlieva, on Politiail Kconomy, 
the subject of money is treiitcd iii a maimer that indicates beyond 
.question complete subserviency to prevailing prejudices relative to 
the real office-work of money. Not so with Mr. Opdyke; he soars 
above prejudice, and brings his acute reasoning powers to bear upon 
the principles which govern finance and commerce. 

It is a duty incumbent ujion Mr. Opdyke to revise his work, un- 
der the light of the present, and to have it published at tlie earliest 
practicable moment. 

Public opinion most justly assigns Mr. Opdyke a place in the very 
front rank, not only of eminent merchants, but also of profound 
thinkers and vigorous writers, especially on the economic questions 
of the day. We only wish that the honor which is so heartily ac- 
corded him might contribute som 'what towards raising up others 
"of his like" in ihis imjjo taut lield 
144 




C yy. 'Ji( yni"-'*'i^^ 



CYRUS HALL MCCORMICK. 




HEEE are few tasks more difficult than to write the life of 



an inventor. The world is quick to aj^preciate the exploits 
and herald the fame of the successful soldier. His laurels 
are won upon a field toward which every eye is turned with in- 
tense interest, and upon whose issue the destiny of a nation pal- 
pably hangs. A single masterly movement of his columns kindles 
a thousand bonfires, and makes his name live in 'the memorial- 
bronze or the stately shaft. Not so, however, with the in\entor. 
" Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war ; " but the 
victories of peace are silent, and the victor must often be content 
with the refle(;tiou that cheered the immortal Kepler, "my work 
is done; it can well wait a century for its readers, since God 
waited full six thousand years before there came a man capable 
of comprehending and admiring his work." 

Happily, in the case of the man whose name is now before us as 
foremost in the history of agricultural invention and progress 
during the present age, tlie quiet achievement of his early life, and 
the arduous toils of his riper years, have, in his world-wide fame 
as well as liis commercial success, already received in a measure 
their merited reward. 

It is related of Cromwell, by the historian Macaulay, that when 
he sat for his last portrait, it was with the stern but noble injunc- 
tion to Sir Peter Lely — " Paint all my scars and my wrinkles or 
I will not pay you a farthing ; " and, in undertaking the present 
memoir, it is with no desire to ofi"er encomium, but simply to in- 
terpret living facts for the benefit of the living. 

It was Virginia that, in 1780, in response to the appeal of Gou- 
145 



2 CYRUS UALL McCORMICK. 

gress, opened her princely hand and gave away the Northwestern 
Territory to the Union, and it was tlie same old State that afterward 
gave to the Northwest the Reaper by whicli its uuequaled develop- 
ment has been eft'ected. 

Mr. MeCorniiek was born February 15, 1809, at "Walnut 
Grove " (the family residence), in Rockbridge County, Virginia. 
His father, Robert McCormick, and his mother, whose maiden 
name was Mary Ann Hall, were both of Scotch-Irish descent, and 
natives, the former of Rockbridge, the latter of Augusta County 
The father was a farmer, owning several fiums, with saw and grist 
mills, and having shops for blaeksraithing, carpentering, machinery, 
etc., in which his own mechanical ingenuity and that of young 
Cyrus found scope for exercise and experiment. 

The son did not have the advantages of a collegiate education 
His studies were limited to the English branches, such as could be 
obtained in the common schools of the country — " the old field 
school^'' sometimes called— an institution, however, which, if judged 
by its fruits, did a great work in training some of Virginia's most 
elegant writei-s and forcible oratoi-s, as Patrick Henry, Henry Clay, 
and othei-s. 

The old Virginia school did its work upon the subject of this 
notice, not without co-operative agencies. The workshop is, to a 
boy that thinks, an arena in which he is to put into practice all 
that he has learned. The youth who ferrets out the mechanism of 
a locomotive and constructs one for his amusement, if you choose, 
tliough it be only a plaything to run across his yard, has done 
more for his education than if he had mastered a book in geome- 
try ; and in the end he has more mental muscle and sinew to show 
for it. When Cyrus was tifteen years old he employed his inventive 
gitV in the construction of a " cradle" which he used in cutting 
with the harvestmen in the field. 

During his son's youth, the elder McCormick busied himself with 
the invention of several valuable machines, upon some of which he 
obtained letters patent, embracing thrashijig, hydraulic, hemp-break- 
146 



CYRUS HALL McCORMICK. 3 

ing, etc ; and in 1816 he contrived a machine for reaping which 
would cut the grain when standing up straight, but which proved 
wholly unavailable when the grain was in a matted or tangled state. 
His experiment was made on the plan of having a number of ver- 
tical cylinders, 8 or 10 inches in diameter, placed in line at right 
angles to the line of draft of the machine, which cylinders, in their 
revolutions, gathered the standing grain to stationary serrated cut- 
ting hooks, and when the stalks were severed on these hooks the 
grain was carried by leather straps to the side of the machine and 
delivered m swath. 

" At the commencement of the harvest of 1831 Mr. Robert McCormick made another 
trial of his macliine, again witliout a practical success, and when, being satisfied that his 
principle of operation could not succeed, he laid it aside and abandoned the further 
prosecution of his idea. His son, who had this time been witnessing his father's experi- 
ments with much interest, then perceiving the difficulties in the way of his father's suc- 
cess—while never liimself having seen, or heard of, any other experiments or principles 
tried but his father's in connection with grain reaping by horse-power — devoted himself 
most laboriously to the discovery of a principle of operation upon which to carry out 
the great object for which his father had labored both mentally and physically for 
fifteen years. 

" Finding, as his father also had found, that the difficulty of separating the grain to be 
cut between each two of the cylinders, when in a fallen or tangled state, was insur- 
mountable ; and tliat, therefore, to succeed, the grain must be cut in a body without such 
separation, except at the line of division between the swath to be cut and the grain to be 
left standing (at which point the ascertained difficulty of separating had to be overcome), 
the question first to be solved was how that was possible. In his reflections and rea- 
soning on this point it occurred to him that to eflect tl:o cutting of the grain by a cutting 
instrument, a certain amount of molion was only necessary, which was demonstrated by 
the action on the grain of the cradle then in common use. The next thought was that 
wl/ile tlie motion forward as drawn by horses was not sufiScient, a lateral motion 
must at the same time be communicated to the cutting instrument, which, combined with 
the forward motion, would be sufficient to effect the cutting process as the machine 
advanced upon the grain. How then was this to be effected ? 

i'Two different methods occurred to the mind of the inventor before he undertook to 
put eitlier to the test of a trial in the field. One was that of a revolving wheel placed 
horizontally (as the wheel of a cart) and drawn forward against the grain, whUe 
caused to revolve rapidly on its axis, having a cutting edge placed on its periphery. 

"Not satisfied however with tliis idea— many objections and difficulties in the way of 
its success presenting themselves to tlie mind of Mr. McCormick— his next idea, which 
proved to be the foundation upon wliich his great invention was finally based, was that 
of communicating by a crank the requisite lateral reciprocating motion to a straight cutting 
blade, placed at right angles to the lino of draught of the macliine. This first principle he 
immediately put to the test by (himself) constructing in a temporary manner the required 
gear-wheels and frame-work, and applying it to the cutting of grain, when the cuUing, 

3 147 



4 OTRPS HALL MoOOliMICK. 

then by n smootli odtjo, was well done, b\it when lie imnu'ilintely disooveroil the import- 
une* ol siipvuirliiiK Uio Krai" «' the cilgo of Uio bliido bv ijmrJ-fmijcis, wiHi which ho 
iiniletl Iho .vritiita/ (ti/j/o to llio witling bliido ; mid iilso Uio uuiiortnnco of Imviiig a device 
(br(rethl<l•in^' tho grain to the ciilliiig iHipirntns. This done lie at oiioo oppliod liimsolf 
10 supplying what st'cmod now K'nuiix^d to make a working machine, nud soon origi- 
nated mid placed over the cutting apparatus Oio rovulving niid gatherimj rett, lor gath- 
ering and throwing back tho grain, and a IVame-work in rear of the cutting blade, 
which ho called the ;i;<i(/i»iH, for receiving the grain as out by tho mncJiino. 

" With these iniporiant original principles combined, and with a vigorous cflbrt, he con- 
Rtruetod a niaeliine, placing it on one driviiig-ulietl at tho stubble side of the machine, 
which operated tho gear-wheels and crank, upon which tlio main frame of tho machine, 
containing iJie cog-wheels was placed, and from which tlio platform was extended to 
tho i^iim fiilf, then supported by a slide, tho wh«!l at tlio side having been substituted 
tlio next year. 

" From tho main frame of tliis mndiine, and outside of the standing grain, projected a 
pair otslfi/ls within which it was drawn by one horse. And on the opposite side of the 
platform was eonstnieted iJio diiider for separating the grain to be cut ftom that to 
be passed by tho machine. 

"From this machine the cut grain was drawn fi'om tho platform and deposited on the 
ground at tht side by a man with a rake, walking on the ground." 



"Tho I'liiUI is tiitlior to tlio man," timi it may liavo hoen tho itn- 
pert'ectious of his fathor's inachino that first siiggostoil to tho 
younger MeConiiick the necessity of a coustructioii upon a 
prinoiplo wholly diiicrcnt. 

As eai'ly as ISol, Mr. MoConniok, then in tho twoiity-soooiul 
year of his ago, inat.le the invention which has given his name a 
world-wide reinitation. and which is now- accomplishing tho work 
of considerably more than a million harvesters. In 1S31, the 
Keaper triumphed in tho harvesting of several acres of oats. Tho 
following year it cut lifty acres of wheat. 

For several years, while e.xperiinenting with, exhibiting its oper- 
ation in the tield, and working the Eeaper himself, though operat- 
ing well in his hands, he deemed it best — while still undergoing 
important improvements — to postpone its sale. 

In the mean time Mr. MoCormick. with a disposition to do 
business for himself, and thus try Lis fortune on his own responsi- 
bility — while his Reaper could not yet be relied upon as a source 
of profit (and he was indeed advised by his father not so to depend 
upon h^ — intimated to his father that, if approved by him, any 
14S 



OTRUS HALL MoCORMICK. 6 

thing he miglit be disposed to give him in that connection would 
be gratefully accepted. Whereupon his father gave him a farm, 
and stocked it in a moderate way ready for bufiinees, and tlie son 
farmed it for one year. About that time an opportunity was p>re- 
sented to engage in an iron-smelting business, w^hich seemed to 
promise larger profits than farming, and soon Mr. McCormick 
entered into it. But during the financial revulsion of about 1837, 
and in connection with some misfortunes in the working of their 
smelting furnace, his business partner, foreseeing the coming storm, 
covered his private property with deeds of trust in favor of his 
friends ; and when, subsequently, failure overtook the firm, the 
ruin fell mainly upon the inventor. This failure, like similar fail- 
ures, proved, perhaps, a "blessing in disguise." Stripping himself 
of all his capital, Mr. McCormick met and liquidated all the liabil- 
ities he had incurred. Applying himself then to his work with 
renewed vigor, in 1839 the sale and introduction of the Reaper 
into general use commenced, and its reputation extended rapidly 
into the great centers of agiicultural interests and improvement. 
In 1845 he removed to Cincinnati, resolved to devote himself to 
the one thing of establishing himself in the then emporium of the 
grain-growing West, and in widening the intioduction of his 
machines. 

They were first patented in 1834, but in 1845 he obtained a 
second patent for several valuable improvements in them. In 
1846-Y-8 he had also some of his machines manufactured in 
Brockport, New York, the makers paying him a "royalty" on all 
they sold, and taking, as security for advances, farmers' orders for 
machines, as procured by Mr. McCormick. 

Inl847 a third patent was granted him for improvements still 
more valuable; and in 1858 another valuable patent was granted 
to him, and still another to himself and brothers. Foreseeing 
prior to 1847 that Chicago was to become the center of the agri- 
cultural empire of the "West, from its commanding position at the 
head of lake navigation, Mr. McCormick then made this city his 
149 



Q CTRUSnAF,!. MoCORMTCK. 

home and prosecuted his cnterpiisc far and wide in radiating linos. 
In 1848. seven hundred of liis machines were made and sold. The 
yoar 1849 saw the annual sale of the MeCorniick Reapers and 
Mowers reach the hii,di figure of fifteen hundred. Since then the 
iiumlMr .<Joid has regularly increased, until now the annual sales 
exci'od ten thousand, including what are termed plain reapers, com- 
bined reapers and mowers, and plain mowing machines— employing 
for several years past, in their manufacture, from five to six hundred 
men, with a large amount of machinery adapted particularly to 
this work. The demand for the invention is perpetually multiplied 
iu proportion as its great laI)or and grain saving merits become the 
subject of inquiry and investigation. 

At the commencement of Mr. McCormick's manufacturing busi- 
ness in the Northwest, to effect sales he found it necessary to sell 
his machines on time and with a (jnaranty of their performance, 
which system he has continued to the present time, thus enabling 
purchasera not only to prove the value of the article they purchase, 
but to realize in advance of payment a large proportion of the 
purchase-price of the machine. 

About the year 1850, the two brothers of Mr. ]\rcCorniick, 
William S. and Leander J., both younger than himself, were iu- 
ti'nduced into his business at Chicago. In 1859 they were associ- 
ated with him as partners iu the manufacturing, and have rendered 
important assistance in the business — the former at the head of the 
office department, and the latter at the head of the manufacturing 
department. 

In the death of his brother William S., in 1865, Mr. McCormick 
sustained a great loss. He was a man of rare excellence of charac- 
ter and superior business abilities. His loss was irreparable. 

In 1859, the Hon. Eeverdy Johnson, in an argument before tiie 
Conmiissioner of Patents, from testimony tahen in the case, said, 
that the McCormick Reaper had already " contributed an annual 
income to the whole country of fifty-five millions of dollars at 
least, which must increase through all time." 
150 



CYRUS HALL MoCOEMIOK. 7 

The quantity of land which can be cultivated, by using these 
machines, is proved to be doubled, and most proof goes iiigher 
still. Each of these machines has paid its price to the owner; the 
saving of the cost of reaping is at least seventy-five cents an acre, 
in labor alone. It has been again and again proved that the saving 
of grain alone, as compared with "cradling," is from one to two 
bushels in an acre cut. These facts have been established in the 
courts by a large numl)er of witnesses, and accepted as evidence. 

From the long time and perseverance necessary to improve and 
perfect this implement, in consequence of the great variety of situ- 
ations in which the crop to be cut is found— green, ripe; wet, dry; 
tall, short ; standing, fallen ; straight, tangled ; and on rough as well 
as smooth ground— and from the short period in each year during 
which experiments could be made (so different from other improve- 
ments), it will be observed that the first patent of Mr. McCormick 
(in 1834) expired (in 1848) before he had accomplished much finan- 
cially with his invention (its extension having been refused at the 
Patent Office and by Congress), and that the important original 
principles of the invention were thus early thrown open to public 
competition, leaving to him only the protection of his subsequent 
patents. In this way, at that early day commenced a competition 
in tiie Eeaper and Mower business, with the various modifications 
in construction (made on the same general principles) that the 
world of intellect employed in the business would be likely to work 
out, which has been kept up to the present time. With the free 
use, also, of the important improvements covered by the expired 
patents of 1845 and 1847 other manufacturers have been and are 
making large numbers of these machines throughout all parts of 
this country and the world: so that, at present, there are annually 
added to the supply in use more than 100,000 of these machines. 

On the ground of the great value to the pithlin of McCormick's 
invention, the opposition to the extension of his patents thus de- 
prived him of those advantages of protection against competition 
which haye been granted to every other prominent inventor in the 
151 



g GYRUS HALL MoCORMlCK. 

country, nnd witliout ivsard to the greater delays in his case in 
perlVcting the invention, consequent upon the limited time in the 
luu-vest season of each year for experimenting. 

The continued success of Mr. MeCormicii, under such circum- 
stances, in th.e manufacture and sale of his invention during a 
period of thirty yeai-s, declining from the beginning to sell patent 
rights to otliei-s, improving and patenting in detail from time to 
time as required, and retaining througliout the first position in the 
business, is perhaps without a parallel, and only second in merit 
to the invention itself. 

Tillage was beautifully called by a gro:\t Roman writer, "tlie 
nui-sing breast of the State." 

If this were felt so true in the little narrow peninsula of Italy, 
how much more forcibly does the figure apply to our vast 
and almost limitless country, on which the sun scarcely sets? 
One has only to glance over the physical geography of the 
United States, to see that the great interests of our people are 
agricultural and mining interests. And, in the development of 
material resources, the sphere of usefulness for Mr. McCormick's 
invention is beyond measurement. 

An invention, such as the Reaper is also of a general utility 
to science. A distinguished meteorologist, speaking of the ba- 
rometer and thermometer, remarked that " each of these inven- 
tions l>ad laid open a new world." As much may be said of the 
Reaper. No such mechanism can be given to any branch of 
human industry, without stimulating the energies and quickening 
the ardor of scientific investigation every wliere. Experiment and 
tlieory are inseparable. Science has many votaries whose adoration 
is unrestrained, and whose offerings at her shrine are of the costli- 
est nature. But it is by utilizing the simplest elements of science, 
as Mr. McCormick has done, that she is elevated to her true dig- 
nity. Tiiis is, in Mr. Hallam's words. '• to turn that which has 
been a blind veneration into a rational worship." 

But to resume the history of the invention itself: a field 
152 



CTRTJS HALL McCORMICK. 9 

trial of the machine, with that of Ohed Hussey, was made near 
Richmond, Virginia, in cutting wheat, in the harvest of 1843, in 
the presence of a large number of the most skillful farmers and 
agriculturist^of that part of the State, most expert in the husband- 
man's art. A committee, selected by and from those assembled on 
this occasion, made a report in favor of the McCormick machine. 

Mr. Hussey, whose invention was two years later than that of 
Mr. McCormick, was his only competitor in the business until 
about 18i9 or 1850, when Manny in the West, and Seymour & 
Morgan in the East, commenced business — after the expiration of 
McCormick's first patent of 1834. 

In 1845 the Gold Medal of the American Institute was awarded 
to Mr. McCormick for his invention. 

At the World's Fair, in London, in 1851, the first international 
institution of the kind convened in history, after two trials in the 
field — the first on Mechi's celebrated " model farm," and the second 
on that of the Hon. Philip Pusey, M. P. — Mr. McCormick was 
awarded the " Council Medal " of the Exhibition, " for the most 
valuable article contributed to it," and its " originality and value " 
— awarded by the Council of Juries, and one of only four such 
medals awarded by the Exhibition to the United States. 

The London Times, which, prior to the trial of the reaper in the 
field, had — in ridicule of it and of the meagreness of the American 
department of the Exhibition — characterized it as " a cross between 
an Astley chariot, a wheelbarrow, and a flying machine," writing 
after the trial, said it was "the most valuable article in the 
Exhibition, and of sufficient value alone to pay the whole expense 
of the Exhibition." 

Mr. Hussey's machine competed at this Exhibition, himself being 
present. 

In 1855, after a field trial with all other machines, the Grand 

Gold Medal was given to Mi-. McCormick, at the Paris Exposition, 

for his Peaper and Mower, as furnishing •' the type after which all 

others were made, as well as for the best operating machine in the 

153 



10 



II A 1, L M C I! M 1 K . 



ticlii." Tliis was otio of tlnvo siu'li iiunials only that were awnnleJ 
in tho ngrioullunil doi>artimMit ol' tlio Kxpositioii. 

lu 18(i'J, tlio I'l-izc Meilal was iiwanlod tlio AiiU'ricaii iuvontor 
hy tho Loiukui lntoniatii)iml Exiiiliition. 

Tho lir»t j)rizo, in tho only iioW oxperiiuont iinuh' in Kii^laiul 
v>f all tho rival niaohitios at tho Kxhihition, was pivsoutod to Mr. 
McCormiik. 

Tiio tirst i>rizo was awardoii to tho MoOonnick Eoapor at the 
Intornutional Exhibition hokl, at Lille, Frauce, as late as 1S63, after 
11 lioUl trial of tho sharpest competition with all other machines. 

Durinjj tho harvest of the snnio year (1SG3), in a most spirited 
and hard-fonjiht tield-oontost of Reapoi-s at tJio great International 
Exliibition of Hamburg, tho Gold ^[odal was unanimously awarded 
to Mr. ^loCormick, in tho language of tho judges, for tho best 
niacliine exhibited, and for " the practical introduction and im- 
provement or perfecting of the Reaping Machine." 

From this Exhibition, Govoruor Joseph A. Wright, United 
States Oommissionor, in a communication made to the press of 
this country, said : " McOormick thrashes all nations, and walks 
»>ff with the Golden Modal." 

Many other European Exhibitions, to say nothing of numerous 
State Eaii-s in America, have, with unanimity, awarded the McOor- 
mick Reaper and Mower their highest premiums. The National 
United States Agricultural Society, ailor a great trial of Reaping 
Machines, extending through nine days, at Syi-acuse, New York, 
in lSr>7, awarded ^[r. McCormick the highest prize, their Grand 
Gold Medal of Honor. 

Next, and more striking still, we mention the Groat Exposition 
of all Ni'tions, mooting in Congress at Psu'is, in 1807. 

lu tho report o'( tho International Jury of this Universal Expo- 
eition, published by the Imperial Commission, ooi'Ui*s this stateiuont : 

"The man who has hibored most in the ^oneral distribnlion, perlectiou, and discov- 
ery of tho first praotical ReaiH>r, is assiirodly Mr. MoOormiok, of Ohicagv\ Illinois. It 
was in 1$31 that this iogenious and porseveriug inventor construoted tli* first ma- 

154 



ALL Mccormick. 



chines of this kind, rude and imperfect when fiist tried. In all the Universal Bxpoai- 
tion«, the first prize has been awarded to this admirable implement, and at this time, 
at Viucennes, as at Foullleuse, under tlie inost difficult condilioiis, its triumph lias been 
complete. Equally as a benefactor of humanity, and as a skillful mechanician, Mr 
McCormick has been judged wortliy of the highest distinction of the Expos 



osition. 



This report was made hy Eugeue Tisserand, Director-General of 
the Imperial Domains. 

M. Aureliano, of the Danubian Principalities, in an independent 
repoi-t, published by the Exposition, says: — 

" It is Mr. McCormick who invented the first Reaper. He occupied himself with 
tills question from 1831, and in 1851 there was seen, for the first time, figuring at the 
Exposition in London, a model Reaper. We have thought it necessary to give some 
details on the origin of Reapers, and in particular on those of Mr. McCormick, which 
are, it may be said, the type after which all others have been constructed." 

After the triumph of McCormick's machine in the two great 
public trials on the Emperor's farms at Fouilleuse and Vincennes, 
he was invited by the Emperor to a private exhibition of his 
Reaper on his farm at Chalons, for the inspection of himself and 
officers of his army, then stationed at that military camp. It was 
accordingly put in operation there, under the superintendence 
of Mr. McCormick, and witnessed with great interest and satisfac- 
tion for some three-quarters of an hour by the Emperor, Marshal 
McNeil, Director-General Tisserand, and others. 

At this field trial, his Majesty was so pleased with the Reaper, 
that, acting under the impulse of the moment, he proposed to 
decorate Mr. McCormick with the cross of the Legion of Honor 
on the spot, and was only deterred from so doing by one of the 
ofHcers, who suggested that such a course, not being en rerjle, would 
tend to give dissatisfaction to rival exhibitors. 

Among the entries of the most magnificent awards of the 
ExDosrtion are : — 

"Gband Peize. 

0. H. McCormick — Reapek. 

GoU) Medal. 

C. H. McCouMiGK— Rkapee and Mowee. 

DlI'LOMA OP CheVAWER. 

Imperial Ordkr op toe Legion of Honor. 

NOMI.NATION of CHARACTPa 

i5i} 



12 



CYUrS UALL MoCOKMlCK. 



Bit J/iv«s*y, t\<i AVfifwfo.-, by dacM <tf the ilh Janmiry, 1S68, has named Ch<!>.-aKe, ./ th» 
/„ij>fr.iil OnUr 4 the Lojion of Jlvmr, Mr. JlcOiiimcIt, 0/ Wiicuyo. IXVES WB OF A 
jjKW RKAMXO UACiiixK, Kthibitor, to tak nvikfrvm this dmj. 

PiJUS, 9W Jiinuary, ISOS."* 

The orisiinnlity, as well as value, of the inveiitiou was further 
eiiiphasizeil iu the otlicial report : 

"The mau," it says, "who has worked tho most to (he discovery of the first praoli- 
cal Roajier, and to the perleotion aud K^ncraliratioii of the niadiiiies, is assuredly Mr. 
McCoriniolv, of Chicago, lUiuois. U was in 1S31 that this ingenious and assiduous in- 
yontor coustruoieii tlie tirst machine of tliis kind." 

Mr. McConuiek was the only exhibitor, in this greatest of all 
the ^reat international exhibitions, who reeeived tho Decaration 
of the Legion of Honor for " ihe incention " of his machine ; and 
also the only person in the Exposition who received boi/i the Deco- 
nition aini Us iiriinJ Prhe. 

In a great trial ot Keapei-s at Alteiiberg. Hungary, held in July, 
«t the rtx'oinniendation of the Hungarian governineut, at whicli 
not less tiian thirty^nght competing machines were catalogued. 
the tirst prize, a Gold Medal, aud sixty ducats were awarded to 
the McOoriuick Keaper. 

And, finally, iu the last harvest, of 1S69, in the special luter- 
natioiial Exhibition of Keapere held at Altona, Prussia, there was 
awsmied to the ilcCormick Reaper a diploma called the " Kappell 
of previous Gold Medals." which, in the language of the otScial 
correspondent, conimtniicating the intelligence, "■ the Exliibitiou 
placed alxne the Gold Medal." 

Inventors are sometimes unfairly reckoned among those erratic 
specimens of the raw. who, poet-like, are "born, not made."' 
They sire, in la>.t, not generally what sir© called business men. 
They are in nnuiy cases inclined to b© visionary, and without 
sufficient stability of pnr^^ose to pursue any one thing long and 
perseveringly enough to make it a success, even when success is 
attainable; such aiv often the difficulties through which a great 
success is achieved by an inventor. 

• The di<tincUoti of tho Legion of Honor is. by » recent law in France, to be coa- 
brted ouIt for gaUantry on tho field of batUe. 



CTEUS HALL McCOEMICK. j,. 

The subject of this sketch is an illustration of the i.oportaut 
truth that the genuine talent, of the human mind are available 
and will pass current in any market, whether it be mechanical 
mercantae, scientific, or literary. Mr. McCormick's originalit; 
has only been equaled by his tenacity and versatility. 

The steady assiduity and unswerving purpose with which, over 
a Wide and ever-expanding field of usefulness, he has pushed 
forward his work, afford an example of a mind in easy equi- 
poise, capaz rerun., and one of which it may be said, as of 
Isaac Barrow's, "it is characterized by a certain air of powerful 
and of conscious facility in the execution of whatever it under- 
takes, seeming always to feel itself superior to the occasion, and 
which, m contending with the greatest difficulties, puts forth but 
half Its strength." 

^ As a writer, Mr. McCormick is easy, graceful, and strong. When 
interested in his theme his pen moves wi.h great power and au- 
thority, as those who have provoked him to discussion wUl avouch, 
ihis was strikingly shown in tlie famous controversv in Scotland 
m 1863, concerning the merits and invention of the Reaper 

There on foreign soil, alone, browbeaten by Scotchmen for 
having beaten them in the Eeaper, and combating the leading agri- 
cnltural journal of Scotland, the North BrUuh Agriculturist 
representing the ungenerous pride and stubborn prejudice of its 
countrymen Mr. McCormick, in the judgment of the more 
aismterested press, came off victor. 

The correspondence with this journal originated about the award 
of the Gold Medal to Mr. McCormick by the Implement Juiy at the 
Hamburg International Exhibition. The editor of the Agriculturist 
desired to make it appear that this award was only an honorary 
t ang. But a letter from one of the jury, published in the course 
of the correspondence, confirmed the fact that the award "means 
exactly what it says." 

The J/-../. Lane Ecpress, of London, the first agricultural paper 
of England, on the 26th of October, in an editorial on the "Battle 
157 



j^ OYIU'S 11 A 1,1, McOORMIOK. 

of till' Koapoit*," 8!ii.l lluil "wliilo llu> editor of tho North Brifuh 
Aiiriculturit>t shows miK'li mil for his coiiiitniuan's (Rev. Pat- 
rick lU'in miu-l(iiio, wo must say tliat wo tliiiik tlio facts aiul ar- 
guiuonts of Mr. Mi'C\>niui'k arc prosentod witli a cloaniess and 
foivo whioh sooiu unansworablo in ostablishing that lio was thofii-st 
to invont tho K>ailii\g foatnros of the succossful Roaping Mai-hino of 
tho prosont ihiv ; that ho continuod roguhirly tho iniprovoniont ;uul 
prosecution of tlu> same to tlio perlbotiou of tho niacliino, and tliat 
tliis— in the sUglitly-varied hmguago of tho diifevent scientific juries 
of tlie various Great International Exhibitions of the world — consti- 
tutes tho invention of tho Iveaping Macliiiio." 

" In fact," says this London journal, " before the Great National 
Exhibition of 1S51, if Reaping MacJiines were invented, they wore 
unknown to tho English farmei-s. We extract some paragraphs 
frvMu i\[r. McCormick's letter, which appeared in the North British 
Atjricuituri-nt of October 15th, which soouis to have closed tho dis- 
cussion and appeai-s to us to settle tho question.'' (..l/.n-A- Z(i;i«' 
Aj;/>/'c.w.) 

The following is tlie letter ret'errod to by the 2Iark Lan^ 

Kfj>r^s : — 

Palace noTKL, BncKuronAM Oate, Lonpojj, 
Och-btr 12, 1863. 

Sir : — .\s stntoit in my loticr of last wcok, I did hopo there \vo\ild be no occasion for 
my ftirthor usa 01" tho columna of tho .4j,-ri;-u;<MriJtt I Mt so lor two reasons : ono of 
whii'h was, that while I could neither doubt ray right fsirlyto defend myself, through 
tho same medium, against assaults made upon my rights or interest^ tliroiigh a public jour- 
nal, nor your " gonerv^us " disposition to accord to me that right, yet I did not like, even 
under these circumstancos, to stand debtor as the recipient of •' commercial " beneBt 
without a ifHiiipro jko. The otlier roason was my desire to close a controversy with the 
oiiiior not antioipsxted; and, though in self-defense at any rate, reluctantly entered into. 
Nevertheless, 1 must beg to say tliat I can not consent to be cut short just as the matter 
now stands: nor would I acknowledge the Scotch Wood tlial courses through my own 
veins, if the Scotch public ivuUi justitV such an excision. 

The puWic can now juvlgo, oven with your latest comments before them, of my posi- 
tion on the tirst qiiesiion raised in the case tlirough the " Britisli Press ;" and as to the 
question of the " invention of tho Reaping Machine," so far as tho views and feelings 
of the editor are eonecrne<l, and had been expressed, I was not only quite satisfied, but 
ftlt, as I said, th.'it my thanks were duo to him. I can well understand and appnociaie 
111* n»tional ft«ling uihw tho question ; but when ho afterward not only changes his 
own ground upon that question, but undertakes my disparagement — not only by tlie 

153 



CYRVH UALL McCOKMICK, ^5 

reproduction of a dewription of matter deemed unworthy of notice by the Oommlwioner 
of Patents, who sat in judgment upon it, but with a corresponding spirit on his part^i 
must claim to bo Iieard in reply. 

If, as the editor says, "Mr. McCormick is a foreigner, and entitled to at least the 
claim which he makes," he places himself in a singuL-irly inconsistent position in refusing 
me m the nr.xt breath that very " opportunity," after further characierizing my connec 
tion with tlie Reaping Machine as " ratlier that of a commercial and successful speculator 
than that of a real inventorl" And this, while I have carefully avoided the slieht^st 
duiparagement of the Eev. Patrick Bell, although it now appears that the notice, by the 
editor, of the "American machines, chiefly imitations of Bell's P^^aper," disposed of in 
my last, and " the words of the Remonstrance by Citizens of New York " against the 
extensioi. of my patent in 1834, now adopted by the editor as his reply to me, are but 
the reproductio»a of what Mr. Bell has bim»elf in years past had published in the 
columns of the North Brim AyricuUurUt. But I am happy to have learned that, while 
the corre.vpondence has been closed in its past form, the editor does yet reco?nize my 
right of reply tlirough his correspondence columns, as an "advertisement," which also 
removes my first objection to its continuance, and will, I trust, make it more pleasant to 
the taste of my respected anonymous assailants, whose ear-marks are still visible 

And how does "its commercial character betray its origin, and almost confirm-if 
confirmation were needed-what we contended for?" I surely need not say to the 
editor of the N^th Brim Agriculturist, tliat in Reaping Machines, that which has no 
commercial value, has really no value at all ; and if I have furnished the best evidence 
of the great commercial value of my Jleaping Machine in the demand which has been 
found for It, is that to be taken as proof against me as a " real inventor?" Withasimple 
statement of "established facts," I shall leave others to characterize such a course by 
an mtelligent and responsible editor of a public joumal-not by interested and irrespon- 
sible signers of a remonstrance, proved aUo by the very fece of their own paper to have 
been wholly unworthy of notice. 

But the editor says my "communication does not give a single new fact as to the 
invention of the Eeaper." While this as a " fact," as already stated, was not pretended, 
how does It apply to the readers of the N^h mtish AgruyMlurist, which is the proper 
test of the correctness of the statement made by the editor ? What I want is a know! 
edge or existing facets. The position taken by the Ncrrth British AgrkMurist, whether 
by Its editor, or others writing for its columns, and upon which the whole superstruc 
ture of Its reasoning has been founded, has been that ipy invention originated with my 
patent m 1834; while upon this assumption only could the "American inventors" 
referred to, even with their abortive experiments, be made available. And tlip report 
of I'laminer Page to Commissioner Burke has. on the same ground, been used to show 
priority of Obed Hussey to me. The explanation and proof on this point, fumishod in 
my Ust and conceded by the editor, establishes my priority to Hussey and all tho other 
American inventors," and places them, therefore, in the position to have "borrowed" 
from me, instead of me from them. And still the editor, in his last commentary with 
the evidence aiao before him of Commissioner Burke to the criginality and valup of mv 
Reaping Machine, wholly ignores thU fact in his statement that nothing '• new" haa 
been presented, and also in his use of the references of the remonstrants. 

Now, one or two observations on the facts further elicited : Pir.t, although I did not 

patent my Eeaper till 1834, and whilst I "preferred not to sell a Reaper until 1839 " (for 

use in 1840), Bell never patented his, and never sold one until about the time wh^n he 

adopted my cutting apparatus, when it was of course no longer a Bell's Keaper-and 

159 



IQ CYRUS HALL McCOEMICK 

after tlie character of my Reaper had been established tliroiighout the world. If Bell 
was then a '• divinity student,'' I was at the same time a " farmer's boy." 

Second. While Hussey may have sold a very few Reaping Machines between 1834 
and 1S40, using iu them prominent features of my prior invention, mine was operating 
regularly and successfully every year from 1S31 onward, in numerous pubhc exhibitions 
abroad, as well as in llie home harvest,. havia? cut witii it fifty acres of corn in 1S32, 
while at the same time undergoing improvements, so that, when I commenced the sale 
of it, that sale increased uniformly and rapidly. And thus being the first to invent the 
loading features of the ultimately successful Reaping Machine, and having continued reg- 
ularly the improvement and prosecution of the same to the perfection of the machine, it 
is respectfully submitted that this, in the slightly varied language of the different scien- 
tific juries of the great international exhibitions of the world, constitutes the invention 
of the Reaping Macliiue. • 

What then are these original features of the successful Reaping Machine of the present 
day? They are, fir.^t, the application of the draught forward and at one side of the 
machine, called the side-draught machine, which was successfully done in my first 
machine of 1S31, as shown in my patent — the application of the power at the rear, as 
referred to by the New York remonstrants, only having been experimented with in a 
machine constructed immediately preceding my application for the patent, but which was 
not continued afterward. The side-draugltt had first been used with a single horse in 
shafts, when it was thought a wider machine might be propelled to advantage from tho 
rear: hence the experiment. 

Second, the cutting apparatus, with a serrated reciprocating blade operating in fingers 
or supports to the cutting, over the edge of the sickle. This was also done by me suc- 
cessfully in 1831, with the single bearing or support on one side of the sickle, and with 
the double hearing (on both sides) in 1832, as proved by the testimony taken in the case, 
when this machine cut fifty acres of grain. 

Third, tlie fixed platform of boards for receiving and retaining the corn as cut and de- 
posited thereon by the gathering reel, until collected in a sufficient quantity or size for 
a sheaf. 

Fourth, discharging it from the platform on the grmmd in sheaves at the side of the 
machine, out of the track of the horses in their next passage round. 

Fifih, a divider for separating, in connection with the reel, the corn to be cut from that 
to be left standing — a further improvement upon which (with still other improvements 
in detail), having become the subject of a patent in 1845 ; while the arrangement of a 
suitable seat on the machine so as to enable the attendant the more easily and com- 
pletely to deliver the corn from it, was also a subject cf a third patent in 1847. 

And now, while in law he who fails to reach the point of practical and valuable suc- 
cess does nothing, and he who continuously and vigorously prosecutes his invention and 
improvements to that point is allowed to prove back to his first experiments — with 
these foundation principles chiimed in my machine, how docs Mr. Bell stand on the editci 's 
idea of '• the great similarity of the general principles adopted in Reaping Maehmes ? " 
Propelling them from the rear was the method adopted in nearly all the experiments 
made from the time of the Gauls to the time of Bell's connection with the Reaping 
Machine. Tlie editor has shown that Salmon's machine cut by shears (in 1807, as 
Bell's), and Smith's laid the corn in swath in ISll — which was also done by my fa- 
ther's machine in 1816; while I must again be permitted to repeat that Bell's machine, 
while lost to the public at least in 1851, never would have been practically and com- 
mercially valuable with his cutting shears, and his impracticable gathering reel of 'two 

160 



CYRUS HALL McCC«TlMICK. 17 

and a half feet in diameter,'' instead of n?me of six to eight feet, ss first -used in its con- 
nection with my cutting apparatus, afterward arlopted by liim. 

To leave notliiug of the adopted "reply, in tlie words of the remonstrance," a word 
farther on it. "The team attached to the rear " has been explained in this letter. The 
remonstrance says my " platform is described as about six feet broad. Bell's machine 
is described as just six feot broad." The editor knows that "Bell's machine has no 
platform!" "Bell's reel," like oViier unsuccessful " gathering racks " and reels before 
it, has also been explained. The remonstrance tlien refers to one of two methods for 
cutting described in my patent, which also out well but was not continued, the former 
being found the simpler. The claims of " the American inventors," Randal, ScUnebly. 
and Hussey, have been disposed of as subsequent to my invention; and that of " Mdoro 
and Haseall " was simply the application of my original serrated edge to the "scal- 
loped (or saw) edged " blade (by Manning), while the draw cut principle in mine was 
entirely different and superior— and, as perfected in the patented combination of the 
open (or very obtuse) angle of the sickle with the angular finger, is yet superior to all 
others. And the seat, with its importance and value, as patented by me in 1847, was 
in vain souglit to be overthrown in the courts by the introduction of the " Hussey and 
Randal seats." I am, etc., 

C. H. ilcCORMICK. 

Tluis, after wiuning the battle of the Reapers in the harvest-fields 
of Europe, the inventor won thein over again in the columns of 
an unfriendly British press. 

Without singleness of aim and indomitable perseverance in pur- 
suit of his object, an iuventor can liardly hope for success. 

The Roman poet's description of the man, 
" Justum ac tenacem propositi," 
emphatically marked the career of our subject. 

On one occasion, in 1859, in the great suit of McCormick v. 
Seymour & Morgan, for an infringement of his patent, in the ab- 
sence of a witness for his patent of 1845, the defendants, upon a 
pretense, desired to put off the trial for the term ; but the plaintiff, 
against the advice of his lawyere, boldly pressed forward the trial 
upon his patent of 1847 alone, and obtained a judgment for dam- 
ages to an amount exceeding $17,000. In the final trial by the 
Supi'eme Court of the United States of the great case of McCor- 
mick V. Manny & Co., when the verdict was in favor of the latter, 
in 1858, as not infringing McCormick's patents of 1845 and 1847— 
when they bad the free use of all the original principles in the 
expired patent of 1834 — the decision was made by four out of seven 
161 



jp CYRUS HALL McCORMlOK 

vi the judges sittinji, Iho other tluve being in favor of a vonlict for 
iilnintitT, but only one of whom wrote out his dissenting o}>inioii. 
This, too, when it was argued that a verdict for plaint ifl" would not 
onlv ruin doloiulant, but prevent the niamifaeture of a single Eeap- 
iug Machine without a license from plaintiff, while a verdict for 
defendant would leave plaintiff in possession of his patents and 
business imaffected. Nevertheless, it was believed by counsel for 
plaintiff that, had a full court of nine judges been sitting, the ma- 
jority would have rendered a verdict for plaintiff. Tiie result, 
however, did not discourage Mr. McCormick. He appears to have 
learned at an early period of liis life the difficult art of turning 
defeat into victory, and securing the fruits of every success by chas- 
tening it with moderation and prudence ; for without these success 
was unattainable, the path of the inventor lying amid chilling dis- 
appointments, not less forbidding than those which often beset the 
track of the Arctic explorer. 

With the invention of the Reaper, Mr. McCormick's fertility of 
mind was by no means exhausted, but rather quickened and stim- 
ulated. Prior to his invention of the Reaper, he invented and 
patented two plows for hon'zcynial plowing on hilly ground. The 
second of these Ingenious contrivances, especially, called a " Stlf- 
S/tai'j)^nlng Horizontal Plow," while skillfully arranged, was 
simple and effective in its construction and a very valuable and 
superior implement to the agriculturist in hilly countries. But, 
suffering delay (as did the Reaper at first) in getting the merits of 
the invention prominently before the public, and not procuring the 
extension of the patent, it gradually fell into disuse for want of 
the requisite attention and pei-severance in its introduction. 

Although his great invention must be regarded as the distin- 
guishing triumph of Mr. McCormick's life, there are other fields 
in which his character has been developed and his influence felt. 
He is known to the public not only by his former connection with 
the religious and secular press of Chicago, but by the contro- 
versies, like those we have alreadv alluded to, into which he has 
162 



CTEU8 HALL McCOEMICK. ^9 

been drawn, in the prosecution of his leading aims of life nnd 
defense of his course as a piihlic man. 

In his political course Mr. McCormick has ever acted with de- 
cision and consistency, following without faltering or compromise 
his convictions of right. With this fact in view, it will not seem 
Burpnsmg that in times of great national excitement, his opinions 
have been misrepresented by some and misunderstood by others 

Born and reared in the South, having his home in the West and 
his business associations leading him into close intercourse with the 
East, he has ever been in the Iroadest sense of the term, a national 
man, free from those sectional prejudices which have resulted so 
unfortunately for the nation. The platform on which he firmly 
stood during the war was that of national union and the rights of 
the respective States under the Federal Constitution. 

Convinced that the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency in 
1800, by a purely sectional vote, would afford an excuse or serve as 
apretext for precipitating disorder and civil strife upon the country 
and impressed with the belief, by his intimate knowledge of Southern' 
character, that the war, if inaugurated, would be prolonged and 
disastrous, he labored earnestly for the success of the Democratic 
party, regarding it as the only party that could present a successful 
barrier against disunion on the one hand, or Federal encroachments 
on the other, and thus bring peace to a divided people. He at- 
tended the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, and it 
18 due to him to state that had his counsels been followed the 
disruption that ensued would not have taken j.lace. In 1864, dur- 
ing the spirited Presidential contest between Lincoln and McCleL 
Ian, he was presented by the Democratic and Conservative voters 
of Chicago as their candidate for Congress, and, althou-h unsuc- 
cessful, conducted the most vigorous political contest ever known 
in that city. 

Mr. McCormick was an advocate of peace, on a basis honor- 
able alike to the North and to the South. During the contest it 
was charged by the Republicans that the Democratic party do- 
163 



30 CTRUS HALI, MoCORMIOK. 

Bifjiuvl a (lislioiioriililo i«>iu-o willi tlio South ; luul sultscinicnt to 
tilt' tiiiimiili (if Mr. liiiicolii, wIrmi no Bucli sospicioii (•oiiM lie onti'i-- 
tiiiiu'.l, Mr. M<(\>nuick ])ublishcd ii proposition tliut llu> Dimiio- 
iTHtio p:>ilv, liv coiivfMlion, ulioiilil si-lt'ct ii I'oininissioii from tiio 
Doniocriicv, wllli llio sanction of rri'sidont IJnroIn, to moot ii 
similiir lii'ion-iition fiom tlio Sontli, to olU-ct n tormination ,.f tlio 
war, in a ivstm'ation of liu' I'nioii — a proposition roroivcii with 
niiicli favor by prominent Democrats and consorvativo lu'publicans, 
Riid h_v sonio h>a(iing nowspapors on both sides; but the measure 
faili'd from tlio ditlicnlty of obtaining a rail of the I'onvontion, 

In lSr>0, llio Bubjoot of this noliee founded and nuinitieently en- 
dowed the Thet)lo_gieal Soniinarj- of the Northwest, at Chieago. 
After the institution, however, had fairly entered njion its career, 
it, unfortunately, fell into the hands of a small but irresponsible 
and unreliable party, detorniined to pervert tlio endowment from 
the purpose it was originally designed to accomplish. Unwilling 
that the fund he had bestowed for a specific object should bo used 
in vii)lation of tlio terms and conditions on which it had been given, 
the donor firmly refused to pay over tho last installment on his bond 
as denumded of him, or so long as the seminary ivmaiiiod luuler 
tlio control of Those who grossly misrepresented its founder, and 
tlio friends with whom he co-operated. Tlio professor who had 
caused himself to bo put in the "McCoriuick Chair of Theology," 
in " A long and severe tirade," printed in a church paper, went so 
far as to charge Mr. MeCormiek with simony. But, in a series of 
letters (published in ISOS and IStiO, in the ^"'ortAwe^itt'rn Presht/if- 
rian), which, for dignity, chastencss of style, and clear analysis 
have seldom been excelled in controvoi-sial discussions, Mr. MeCor- 
miek vindicated himself from the charges made against him, and 
prt>ved that, like Shyloek of old, his adversary had harped only 
on " the bond ! the bond 1 " 

In answer to this malicious attack Mr. i[oCormiok replied by a 
dignified and unvarnished recital of facts, supported by a weight 
of evidence crushing to his opponent. Subscipientlv tho com- 

it;4 



CYKUS UALL McCOKMIOK. 21 

mittce appointed by the General Assembly to investigate these 
Seminary difficnlties made a unanimous report, fully sustaining 
Mr. MeCormick in the course he had jnirsued and releasing him 
from the payment of the "simony" bond 1 

Within a few years Mr, McCormick liaa endowed a Professorship 
in Washington College, Virginia, an institution founded by and 
named in honor of " the father of his country^'' — recently under tho 
presidency of General Robert E. Lee. lie also has made large dona- 
tions to the Union Theological Seminary of Virginia, and to other 
societies in connection with the Presbyterian Church. 

During his eventful struggle, on many iields of ardent and 
painful rivalry, Mr. McCormick remained single until the year 
1858. He then married a daughter of Melzar Fowler, an orpban 
niece of Judge E. G. Merick (at the time, of Clayton, Jefferson 
County, New York, but at present a citizen of Detroit), a highly 
gifted and accomplished lady, whose elegant and kindly attractions 
grace her hospitable mansion. 

He has four interesting children, one son and three daughters. 
The eldest, eleven years of age, is a boy of more than ordinary 
intelligence. 

The valley of Virginia, especially that portion around Lexing- 
ton, was largely settled by families adhering in sentiments to the 
political cause of Cromwell, and by the Old School Presbyterians, 
in whose creed Mr. McCormick was instructed, and which he 
afterward embraced, in about tlie twenty-fifth year of his age. 

In 1865 he removed from Chicago to New York, where he 
became interested in some important enterprises, including the 
Union Pacific Kailroad, in which for some years he has been a 
Director. 

And, now, in bringing this imperfect notice to a close, we may 
add a word upon the story it conveys. The individuality of the 
inventor is lost in the value of the invention. A late writer, after 
brilliantly portraying the events which led to the discovery of the 
Pacific Ocean by Vasco Nunez, remarks: "Every great and 
165 



orii;iiii»l lu-iiou luis ii pivsi'i'i'iivo groatuess - not tilone from the 
tluuiijlit of tlio iium wlio lU'liiovi'd it, but from tlio various aspect** 
ami hi"h thoiij^lita which tho saiiio tu'tiou will continue to present 
anil call up in the minds of others to the end, it may be, of all 
time." The ivsult of human activity has an unlimited divergence 
like the rays of the sun. In the instance just quoted, Nunez, witli 
folded arms and bent knees, ollered thanks to God for having re- 
vealed to him the famed South Sea; so little did ho dream that ho 
had iliseoveixHl the great ocean whose mighty waters cover more 
than one half of our entire planet. Nor is this disproportion be- 
twwn the value of the discovery, as at tirst estimated and ns linally 
n^alired. a tiling of rare occurrence. An Englisli mechanic once 
constructed an engine for pumping water out of a coal-pit, little 
thinking he was thus revolutionizing the world by machinery 
moved by steam. The early philosophers of Greece in treating the 
Conic Sections never suspected that they were furnishing means 
for the n\ensuration of the heavens, and were nnconsciously laying 
the foundalions of astnniomy. " Uumau inventions." to nse the 
wiyrvls of I'aptain Alaury, " ai-e important geographical agents, and 
tlie various n\echanical impixtvements of the age have givatly 
chiuiged the face of our country and the industrial pui-suits of the 
people, Reloi-e Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin, the culti- 
vation of cotton in the South was contined to a snu\ll 'patch' on 
each farm. About sevejity yeai-s agt.\ an American sliip from 
Charleston, arriving in England witli ten bales of cotton as part of 
h»r c!vrgv\ was seizini on tiie ground that so much cotton could not 
Ih' ^>lXH^ucell in the Unites! States. In ISCO the production had 
r^'acheil four millions of biJes and upwai-d." 

Raiment is to the hunu\n family second in importance to food. 
When the Kcjijkt, by which the harvests of the world's breadstutis 
are ticlclet,!, attains the agt^ of Whitney's invention, how vast, how 
bright, the prosjH»ct of its use and its utility I 
loG 




r 



^ 



H. I. KIMBALL. 

1^ S a representatiTO of legitimate and enlightened enter- 
..^^ . prise, and an exponent of modem progress, a progress 
Xh!^^ whose beneficent results enhance public good as well as 
individual prosperity, a progress whose aim and ultimatum accept 
nothing short of abundant success, Mr. H. I. Kimball of Georgia is 
entitled to marked pre-eminence. 

ITe is the fifth son of Mr. Peter Kimball ; was born in Oxford 
county, Maine, A.D., 1832. In early life he learaed the carriage 
maker's trade, and at the age of 19 was called to take charge of one of 
the most extensive carriage manufactories in the United States. At 
the age of 21, the firm evidenced their appreciation of his executive 
and financial ability, by admitting him to full partnership. The 
business of this establishment being principally with the South, it 
was entirely broken up by the war, and resulted in the loss, by Mr. 
Kimball, of his entire estate, and the business passed into other 
hands. In no wise discouraged, and having the spirit of a man not 
willing to become a servant in his own house, he left the carriage 
business, and served as superintendent of a Mining Company in 
Colorado, until the Spring of 1865. Failing in health, he left Colo- 
rado, and became interested with Mr. George M. Pullman, and 
established the sleeping car lines throughout the South, making his 
headquarters at Atlanta, Ga., where in a very few mouths he com- 
pletely regained his former vigorous health. Being a man of 
original ideas and forethought, as well as one of remarkable per- 
severance and executive ability, he became largely interested in 
the business welfare and social advancement generally of his 
adopted city and State. 

In the progress of reconstruction, the Constitutional Convention 
167 



2 II. I. KIMUALL. 

of Oooi-jfjia, which mot ftt Athmtii, designated that place as the 
Ciiiiital of the State. Mr. Kimball, seeing the importance of im- 
mediately providing a suitable capitol building in order that the 
seat of govenunont might bo permanently located in Atlanta, 
purehasoil the property known as the Atlanta Opera House (which 
had been abandoned by the projectoi-s, when only the walls were 
up), anil conunencod the erection of a Statu House on his individual 
account and responsibility; and in less than live months the un- 
sightly structure was converted into a magniiicent edilico, being 
finished and furnished in a manner unsurpassed by any State capitol 
in the Union. Notwithstanding the many dillicultics ho had to 
encounter, not only in procuring tho laboi' and material for this 
work, but, to overcome the prejudices of tho people, day and night 
found him at his post, with his men, acting as architect and leader in 
tho various parts, determined to accomplish his object. The result 
was, tho building was completed and dedicated for tho purpose in- 
tended on the very day ho had appointed four months previous. 

Early in the year of ISTO, the city of Atlanta, having contracted 
with tho State Agricultural Society of Georgia for tho preparation 
of grounds and buildings, in which tho Exposition of tliat year 
should bo held, called upon the indefatigable Kimball, and through 
his skill, ability, and financial aid, in tho short space of five 
months, a wilderness of neai'ly sixty acres in extent was converted 
into a magniiicent pleasure pai-k, with all the necessary buildings, 
race-tracks, lakes, drives, etc., etc., pronounced one of the finest and 
best adapted for tho purpose, extant. 

Scarcely had the contract been concludcil, which was to insure 
tho preparation of the grounds in a becoming style for the State 
Fair, when, appreciating another necessity, with characteristic 
promptness and dai-ing he resolved to overcome it, and on Saturdiiy, 
March iO, he purchased the site of the old "Atlanta lintel;" the 
following Monday morning ground was broken for the largest and 
finest hotel south of New York city, at which time ho announced 
that the building would be completed and ready for the reception 
168 



of guests on the 17th of October following. As startling and 
almost incredible as this announcement seemed, even to the people 
of Atlanta, the promise was made good, and " The 11. I. Kimball 
Ilouse" dates the idea which gave it birth, and the banquet which 
hailed its opening within less than seven months time. Tliis mag- 
nificent building is about the size of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New 
York, with a frontage of 210 feet, 105 feet deep, six stories liigh, 
containing 350 rooms, elegantly finished and faultlessly furnished ; 
and it stands to-day, a splendid monument to the brilliant concep- 
tion and grand constructive genius, no less than to the unparalleled 
and untiring energy of him whose name it deservedly boars. 

Mr. Kimball is largely interested in the various railroad enter- 
prises in Georgia, devoting his time, influence, and capital to the 
development of the vast agricultural and mineral resources of his 
adopted State, by the extension of her railroad system. lie is presi- 
dent of tlie Brunswick and Albany Eailroad, which extends from the 
magnificent harbor of IJrunswick, west 2i2 miles, entirely across tiie 
State to Eufaula, Alai)ama, one of the most important railroads in 
the South. He is also president of the Cartersville and Van Wert 
Railroad. He is one of the largest share-owners in the Western and 
Atlantic Railroad of Georgia. He is now urging upon the people 
of Georgia the advantages to accrue to them by building tlie interior 
and local railroads on the narrow or two feet six inch gauge plan, 
and it is not unlikely that through his energy and financial ability, 
hundreds of miles of this class of railways will be completed in the 
State of Georgia during the next few years. 

In whatever community he resides, he wins the attention and 
admiration of the people. He has often had offers of high political 
place and power, but declined all such, and studiously avoided any 
mingling, save as a private citizen, in the political issues of the day. 
Although Mr. Kimball has, by an untiring energy and remark- 
able ability, already amassed a competency of more than half a 
million of dollars, it is not to be expected that lie will rest content 
in his onward march of prosperity. Still in the vigor of manhood, 
i'G9 



^ H. T. KIMBALL. 

encouraged by past success, and resolved on futnre triumphs, it la 
but reasonable to predict that he will attain a degree of wealth and 
honor siifficient to gratify any laudable ambition, coupled with that 
satisfaction which emanates from a consciousness of doing good in 
proportion to increasing ability. 

In personal appearance Mr. Kimball is prepossessing, and seema 
the embodiment of health and good cheer, without approaching 
obesity. He is pleasant and unaffected in manner, entertaining in 
conversation, frank and generous with all wiiom he encounters in 
business or social intercourse. With the manifold cares of his 
various enterprises to command liis attention, he is nevertheless 
always genial and pleasant, devoting much of his time to his family, 
and frequently visiting his aged parents. Using the Bible for his 
guide, he is eflScient in Church and Sabbath-school, and sustains 
an unblemished Christian character, with mental faculties and 
physical resources unimpaired by excesses of any kind. 

Not yet thirty-nine years of age, he can not be said to have 
reached the prime of life, and certainly gives every promise of a 
brilliant future and a long career of usefulness before him. 

Well may Georgia, his adopted State, be proud of such a 
citizen. 

170 




.>/.;)^ 



ALEXANDER S. DIVEK 

'ENEEAL ALEXANDER S. DFTEN, well known to 
the country at large, as a lawyer, railroad contractor, poll- 
"^ tician, and soldier, was born on the 15tli of February, 1809, 
at the head of Seneca Lake, in the town of Catharine, now 
known as the village of Watkins, and County of Tioga, in the State 
of New York. His father was a soldier of our Eevolutionary war, 
and held the rank of Captain at its close. The subject of this sketch 
received a thoroughly good education at the Penn Yan and Ovid 
Academies, acquitting himself with credit. On leaving the Acad- 
emy, he studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1832. At 
Elmira, where he then resided, and still resides, he pursued his pro- 
fessional career in the firm of Diven, Hathaway & Woods, winning 
reputation, as much by his diligent attention to business as by the 
talent he displayed in managing the cases placed under his charge. 

He interested himself actively in the internal improvements of 
the State, devoting much of liis time to railroad matters, and in 
1845 became a Director of the New York and Erie Company, and 
bore a very conspicuous part in re-establishing the waning credit of 
that road, and in completing it. He also held the position of attor- 
ney of the road for the country, until 1865, during which year he 
was elected its vice-president. This latter office was held by Gen- 
eral Diven for three years, during which time he resided in the 
city of New York, giving his entire time and attention to his many 
responsible duties. 

In 1870 he returned to Elmira, retiring from all bxisiness pursuits, 
excepting the superintendency of a large farm lying on the suburbs 
of the city, to the improvement of which estate he has devoted his 
171 



3 A I, K X A N I) K K H . n I V IC N . 

l.'isuiv ln.ui-s. Yours l)cl\>io lliil, lidw.-vor, iilllioui;li it wim I..111,' 
;ifl«'r lio lirsl hooimio nssocinti'd witli t!i(> Krio (\>iii|):iiiy, (ioncriil 
Divoii \v;is Trositli'iit of tlio \Villiiimsi)ort niul lOliiiini rmid, rctiiiu- 
'\\\'^ tliMt luisition iliii'iiij:!; llio mitiro process of its i-onstniction. Ai 11 
ntor lUM-ioil lio bocnino iMtcnstoil in all tho roads cMiiiucliiii,' witli 
,i,aml whii-h \vt>ro aHorwiirds uidtod, and arc now known niulortho 
f;onoral title of the Pennsylvania Northern Central Hail way. As 
a oontraetor, he has been eminently suecessfid, lie contracted for 
the constiiietion of the Missonri Pacific Railway, in connection with 
Oeneral Thomas Price, and he was also engaged, as contractor, under 
the lirm name of Diven, StanclitV it Co., in tho construction of tho 
South-western branch of tho Missouri Pacific road, and had the road 
et>ustrneted as far as Rolla, when tho civil war broke out. 

Gi<neral Diven entered early into political life, and on the organ- 
ization of the Kepublican party, joined it. lie served in the Senate 
of the State of New York in lSoS-59. In 1859 he was a csuididate 
for the ollice of Governor, at the time that Mr. Morgan, who was 
subsequently elected, wivs nominated by the Kepublican Convention. 
lie W1U3 the " Free-soil " candidate in that Convention, and wjia ft 
candidate in the State Convention at tlio time Judge Henry E. 
Davies wna maninated for Judge of tho Court of Appesvls. lu 1800 
he was elected a Kepresentativo in tho Thirty-soventh Congress, as 
a Ivcpublicim, from the Twenty-seventh Congressionjil District. He 
was ft member of tho Judiciary Committee, and took an active pai-t 
in the debates and proceedings of the House during the early part 
of the givat rebellion. A staunch and devoted Unionist, he gave the 
.Vilministration unstinting support. "When Mr. Lincoln asked for 
four hundred thousand voluuteere and four hundred millions of dol- 
lars, and (.\>ngi-ess pn^posed to increase tho numbers voluntarily. 
Air. McCleruand, of Illinois, a Democratic member, objected to the 
pjvposition. In response, General Divon s;»id : 

" If I understand tho objection made by the gentleman trom Illi- 
nois to tho provision of the bill authorizing one liundred thousand 
motv moil to be called for bv tho Pivsideut, at his discretion, tliau 
172 



he hiu^ 'Mki-A for in hh uu:miigti, it in \}<xiitinti he in wUlitiff to trust 
U> the rwfinmbuilalioa of tlie President. Then, if lie is willing to 
tru»t to the (Ihicrution and justice of the Preside/it, as exhihite<l ixi 
JiiH recommendation, and in iiis Annual A£e.%age, Hurely he ought to 
he willing to trawt to hia diocretiou in u»ing a greater latitude, if 
gianted Ut iiim by Congress. It is difficult to determine what may 
transpire between this time and the meeting of Congress again. "We 
want, at least, ta put it beyond the necessity of again convening 
Congress before the time of its next regular session. Before that 
time, if ever, an increased force will be required. As soon as the 
early frosts of October shall justify placing troops in the Cotton 
States, I trust the Tresident, in his discretio^^ will see the projjriety 
of placing a large army at Pensacola, Charleston, and other rebel- 
h'ous places in thla Confederacy. And L, for one, have c-.nfidence 
enough in the President and his Council, to give the broadest dis- 
cretion to him ; and if I were to recjommend any amendment, it 
would be, not to limit, but U) extend tliat discretion. Gentlemen 
having confidence in the President and his Council nee<J have no 
apprehension in extending U) him this discretion." 

Aftor the surrender of Alosgrs. ]\Iason and Slidell, at the demand 
of the Piitish Government, the democrats taunted the Administra- 
tion with pusillanimity, in yielding t<j a threat, after applauding 
(Captain Wilkes for boarding the steamer Trent, and arresting the 
rebel commissioners. In a speech on the subject, Mr. Diven admit- 
ted that the act of seizure was unjustifiable, and expres-se^l the opin- 
ion tliat the country had escaped a serious c^>mpIication by promptly 
al>andoning its untenable position, and, in the course of Ins remarks, 
said : 

"Now, sir, we have escaped— and I venture to say tiie jufigment 
of the world will justify and honor the ground on which we have 
escaped— a collision with one of the great powers of Europe; a col- 
lision which, if it had taken place, would probably have led to 
consequences that no man can foresee. I congratulate the cx^untry 
that we hav., f*caped it. I feel none of the humiliation tliat attache', 
173 



4 A L IC \ A N D E K S . D 1 V E N . 

to Others; ami yoiirs lience nubodj- will tl-ol tliat any liuiuiliation 
attaclios to tliis act. Years LoiK-e, we may cite this precedent, when 
upon some occiioiou a foreign vessel shall board one of our ships, and 
take from it some pei-sons who su-e sailing under its flag ; we shall 
tbeu have this example to poiut to in support of the rule for which 
we have long contended." 

As an anti slavery man he was well known to the public at large. 
Nevertheless, Mr. Diveu was not an extremist on the subject, lie 
desired to see slavery abolished, but he deprecated violence in ob- 
taining its abolition. He, however, gave a hearty and unqualified 
support to the bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia ; and, during the debate upon it, remarked : 

'* Mr. Speaker — My view in reference to the power of the Gen- 
eral Government over slavery h;is always been, that it was, at best, 
extremely limited ; that it had but little to do with the question ; 
and because it had but little authority over it, there was but little 
responsibility resting on the countiy iu regard to it. Congress had 
control over it in the District of Columbia, as having supreme gov- 
erning power, and for that reason I wiis in favor of the exercise uf 
that power, to the exclusion of slavery from the District of Colum- 
bia. I thought, and still think, that when that was done all the 
power that the Constitution gave Congress over the question of 
slavery was exhausted. But, sir, if it was not ; if there are other 
places where Congress has a right to abolish it, I want it to be exer- 
cised. I want Congress to exhaust the last power it has over this 
institution, whenever and wherever it can be done ; and whenever 
a bill is framed so as to reach the institution of slavery where Con- 
gress is responsible for it, and to wipe it out, I will ask that it be 
adopted." 

We shall make but one more extract from his speeches in Con- 
gress. When the proposition was made to confiscate the property 
of rebels, he shrank from it, as involving an amount of human suf- 
fering aTid miserj- too fearful to contemplate. The speech delivered 
by him on the subject is one of which ho may well feel proud. It 



ALEXANDER S. DIVEN. O 

must ever remain a monument to his humanity, and to his tender- 
ness of heart. It was the utterance of a Christian and a chivalric 
man, and the same sentiments it contained ho subsequently carried 
to tlie battle-field, and acted up to them. We make the following 
Rx tract from the speech : 

"Now, sir, it is for civilized warfare that I plead — it is against 
barbarian warfare that I protest — when I declare that the pittance 
of the women and children, the private property upon which fami- 
lies rely for sustenance, shall not be taken, and an unnecessary pun- 
ishment inflicted upon them. Sir, these are other rules of warfare 
than that of civilization. The barbarian has his rule of warfare, too. 
His code of war permits the taking of the property of the enemy 
that he has slain in battle, and all the private property he can ^eize, 
but he is restrained from inflicting murder and death npon unof- 
fending women and children and old men, and there the line be- 
tween barbarian warfare and savage warfare commences. While 
the barbarian spares the life of the non-resistant, the savage takes it, 
and decorates his war-belt with the glossy curls of helpless women, 
and the flaxen hair of innocent children, and, around his hellish 
war-fires, gloats on these wanton murders. That is savage warfare. 
But civilized warfare stops with the striking down of the enemy on 
the battle-field — with conquering by the strong right arm. Sir, val- 
iant men will go no further. We have been told here what will 
probably be the course of our soldiers if we enact certain laws. Let 
me tell you, that if you enact certain laws that will require valiant 
men, after they have stricken down their enemies on the field, and 
captured them and all their munitions of war, to go into the homes 
of their enemies and desolate them — to lift their hands against unof- 
fending women and children, and rob them of their substance, and 
turn them penniless on the world — valiant men will never do it. 
* * * I was taught early to bend a very little knee, and lift tiny 
liaiids, and ask God to forgive me as I forgave those who trespassed 
against me. And, sir, during the troubled voyage of life, in sun- 
shine and in storm, in tempest and in calm, I have never forgotten 
175 



iliiit niu-lu.r of 111}- liopo— tli;it tni.st which is all inj rolijj;i.)ii. I havo 
boon tauiilit tlmt tho ilitloreiK-o botweeii the donioii t)t' darkness and 
tlio aiK'ol of Hf^ht is, tiiat tho oiio is guiilod hy clmrity and love, the 
othor l>y liato and nialioo." 

i>ut, whilo arguing with an okKjuonoo which showod how oaniost 
was his pica for IniniauitT, against contisoatiou of huuK-d and ordi- 
nary iiorsonal pioporty, Cioueral Dis'on was in favor of tho seques- 
tration of i>la\o property, llo closed his speech by declaring that 
tho views ho had expressed were all for the Union, and added : 

"Those who want disunion — those who want to govern a portion 
of the States as subject provinces — let tlioni couio out. They are 
not of us; they are not of the Union ; they have no right to claim 
devotion to the Union. Sir, that Hag which decorates your scat has 
thirty-four stai-s upon it, all kindled by the sjinie sacred tiro — all 
omitting the same ssicrod light. True, some of them are now ob- 
scuivd by this dark cloud of secession. It is for the friends of the 
Union to dispel that cloud — give to those stars their wonted light 
nnd glory. There be tliost — and, sir, I am sorry to know it— who 
would dispel that cloud, only that they might i-each the stai-s and 
put out tho light of those which are now obscured ; or, at least, re- 
duce them to sjitellites, permitting them only to sliine with a bor- 
rowed light. They, sir, are not Union men — not Constitutional 
men ; that is not their flag, it is om-s ; and may star after star bo 
added to its gidaxy, until its hght sliall flash in the face of tyrants 
oven wiiere, and 

I'lu'st' munlyiiij;- U>i\ls shall soo 

That mnii has vot a soul, and dare bo fr*"?." 

In ISOJ, General Diven left his seat in Congress for the purpose 
of aiding with his sword in suppressing the rebellion, lie assisted 
in raising tho One Hundred and Seventh regiment of Js'ew York 
Volunteers, and obtained a commission in it. His command was 
or^ioi-oil to \irginia, and was attached to General Gordon's Second 
Division of the Twelfth Army Corps, commanded, first, by General 
Williams, of Michigan, and subsequent! v. bv Genenil Slocum, of 
170 



ALEXANnEJtS.DIVKN. 7 

New York. The subject of tliin sketch participated in all the en- 
gagements which took place in Virginia during 1862-03, including 
the battles of Antietara and Chanoellorsville, distinguishing himself 
by his gallantry and skill. Soon after the last-named buttle, he was 
brevetted Brigadier-General and detailed for special duty as Assist- 
ant Provost-Marshal General for the Western District of New York, 
and was subsequently appointed to the command of the ISTorthem 
and Western District, which he retained during the remainder of 
the war. For a great part of the time the entire responsibility of eon- 
ducting the draft in Western New York devolved upon him, and we 
need hardly say that the duties were performed with energy and suc- 
cess. Indeed, General Diven's military career was eminently honorable. 
In 180.5, General Diven resigned his commission and went to the 
city of New York to accept the Vice-Presidency of the Erie Rail- 
road. While holding this position, he had charge of the traffic of 
the road and its business in connection with its various connecting 
roads. As we have stated already, he is now retired from all busi- 
ness pursuits, although he is a gentleman of thorough business hab 
its, and has been all his life a worker. 

General Diven was married, in 1835, to Miss Amanda Bears, of 
Elmira, and has eight children— four sons and four daughters. Two 
of his sons were in the army of the rebellion. One, Alexander, 
entered as a private and rose to the rank of major, and Eu"-enG 
entered as a second lieutenant and rose to captain. Unassuniing in 
manners, and of most domestic taste, he is known to his friends as 
that r(wa avis among men — a model husband and father. 

That he has done great service in his time for the advancement 
of railroad interests, is well evidenced in the record of his history. 
The varied connections he has had with enterprises for constructing 
i-ailroad lines; the eagerness with which his views are sought on 
matters connected with railroads (we must not ouiit stating that he 
was consulted about and helped to establish the Missouri roads ), 
attest how well he merits the prominence he has obtained, and how 
well we arc justified in classifying hirn among Men of Pro.rross 
177 




c 



l^ri^^<^<- L(^^0 



2 CiF.OHLlK \V MEAD. 

give him great advantage, he decided, late as it was in life, to fit 
himself for and to enter college. Accordingly with characteristic 
promptness and rapidity of execution, two days after, ho had entered 
upon his preparation, and in the fall of 1847 was admitted to the 
freshman class in Yale College, with which class he graduated in 
1851. 

From the day of his graduation in the academical college course, 
we may date one of the most active, earnest lives that has ever come 
under our notice. Never objectless, he did with a will 
whatever needed doing which came first to his hand. 

Small of stature, wiry of frame, honest and earnest in purpose, of 
clear discernment and with strong religious faith in God, nothing 
ever seemed to him impossible, very few things difficult of execution. 
His fearlessness, his conscientiousness (not of the sickly, pusillani- 
mous kind that so often takes the moral stamina from men, lest in 
doing something they should do something wi'ong, but of the en- 
larged, healthy and ennobling type,) his earnestness and directness of 
stroke at wrong in high or low places — ^his frankness, sincerity and 
jilainuess of speech, carry with them a magic effect. Men are 
carried with him or cast from him with a centripetal or centrifugal 
force that makes the line of affinity and repulsion about him clearly 
defined. His is a positive character ; he neither has nor tolerates 
anything negative about him. 

Whether from a natural love of the soil, or from an intelligent 
perception of the connection between the growth of population in a 
new country and an increase of landed value — one of his class-mates 
says of him "he could not wait to graduate, before he became one of the 
largest real estate owners in New Haven — growing out of purchases 
made of Messrs. Wm. P. Green, of Norwich, and Wm. M. Smith, 
and John Barnard and others of New Haven ; " most of which large 
and now valuable landed interests it is understood he has firmly 
held for nearly a generation, and still holds. Real estate has always 
been his favorite and almost exclusive investment. 
1«0 



GEOEGK W. MEAD 

3 

Without the slightest purpose of pursuing the profcssioa as a 
calhng, he, after a brief tour of business aud observation beyond the 
Mississippi, entered iu the autumn of 1851 upon the study of the law 
HI the Yale Law School, then in charge of Governors Clark Bissell and 
!Icnry Dutton, from which he graduated in regular course, in the 
autumn of 1853. 

During his law course he was frequently called upon to give in- 
struction by lectures and otherwise to classes at the New Haven 
Collegiate and Commercial Institute, in the different branches 
of natural history, in whicli he bid acquired much proficiency before 
aud during his college life. 

While in the law-sehool, there appears to have occurred one of 
those sudden, angular, incomprehensible turns in Lis life which so 
often violently changes the whole course of a man's life and history 
only to be accounted for by the faith that relies upon the " noJ 
as man's ways" testimony. In various seemingly casual ways 
without any previous special intimacy, his pathway led into, and 
along that of one who had been first his class-mate in the college 
and then in the law school, and so did their views, plans and 
attachments seem to interweave each other, and to interlink the two 
lives, that for them to separate at graduation, seemed to be doing a 
violence to the best interests of both. The result was a proposed 
law-partnership in New York City, upon their admission to the bar 
th3re. Both were admitted in February, 1854, and the law firm of 
Mead and Taft opened their office at 237 Broadway, on the 1st of 
March following, and for ten years, the period originally named for 
the continuance of the partnership, they successfully prosecuted the 
practice of their profession. From the outset, their practice was 
extensive (though, as is the experience of most of the profession 
more large than lucrative), and extended over the whole ran-^e of 
civil business. While years of toil, they were years of valuable 
experience to one who would be called upon to- engage in such 
varied business activities as were before him. 
1«1 



4 GEOUOK \V MEAD. 

.IiKljics Oakloy, Duer, lloU'imui, Wooilniil", Ingrnlmm, Clorkc, G. 
P. Unly, iiiul others of like legiil learning and purity of character, 
then ailornod the New York bench, and to practice before them 
exalted any nmn's character. Ten years made sad havoc on the 
bench, and sadder changes at the bar ; and Mr. Mead has him elf 
been heard to say, tliat with no early leaning to the profession, 
when tlie profession was professional, ho had no regrets at leaving 
it, when it degeiieiiited into u business, and justice became a mere 
matter of barter anil sale. 

In 1858 he was married to Sarah Frances StudwcU, only daughter 
of John J. Studweil, Esq., of Brooklyn, New York, accompanied 
liv wlioin, during that yciu', he visited Europe on a pleasure tour. 

Ul)oii liis retirement from the practice of his profession, in 1864, 
it was botU his desire and intention to repair to his country place, 
near the old homesteail, and enjoy a certain degree of leisure, but 
found there, as is found in so many other places, the subject of a 
new railroad engrossing public attention, as it had been for many 
yeara previous thereto. His public spirit gave instjiut, early and 
willing aid to the movement, which resulted speedily in the organ- 
ization of the New York, Housatonic and Northern Railroad 
Company. 

At once the presidency of the Company, with a unaniiuity that 
would brook no refusal, was tendered him. The value of the enter- 
prise, when consummated, was to him apparent, but the vast difficul- 
ties that might intervene he saw with equal clearness. Encoumged 
by the former and not dismayed by the latter, ho reluctantly yield- 
ed his pu^ferences and assumed the duties of the position. 

At once ho wrote and published the prospectus of the company, 
which ably set forth the merits of the project, and secured for it 
much consideration and many friends. The many obstacles met and 
silently but successfully overcome, it is not the place here to enumer- 
ate ; yt>t they may one day, if the history of the company be ever 
truthfully written, form a bright page in the life here but par- 
183 



tidly and imperfectly sketched, as well as in the history of American 
railways. 

It is well known to those who have stood nearest him in the 
counsels of the company, that at the close of each official year it 
has been his personal preference to be reUeved of hi« oice and its 
duties and responsibilities, but that the same unanimity which 
arst placed him in the position, has been all-controUing in retaininr' 
L'm there. " 

Without ever having allowed his name to be used as a candidate 
for any public office whatever, he has never been neglectful of hiij 
duty as a good citizen, in shaping the poUtical movements about 
him. Upon arriving at his majority, he cast his vote with the Whig 
party and until the organization of the RepubUcan party in 1855, 
when he became an active member of that party and as such was 
President of the First Republican Association in the Brooklyn 
Ward in which he then resided. 

Through the war he was an uncompromising Unionist, giving 
freely of his time and money to the support of the army of the 
north, and the overthrow of the Rebellion, his hatred of which was 
very pronounced. 

As a financier, his abihty and probity have rendered him sought 
after in some of tho largest and most prosperous moneyed institu- 
tions in New York City, in which, as director and trustee, he holds 
positions. 

To the city of Brooklyn, where for many years he has passed his 
winters, he is much attached, and to its interests and prosperity 
he has been closely devoted. A single incident, which came 
under the writer's notice, will serve to iUustrate this point. 
A little before the breaking out of the war in the south, there 
was war declared in Brooklyn, not upon the worms which in- 
fested its shade trees, but upon the trees themselves and, singular 
now to relate, a resolution passed her Common Council, directing 
the cutting do ah and removal of them from her streets. 
18a 



6 OEOUGE W. MKAD. 

A public meeting of the citizens was called at the City Hall, to 
remonstrate against the sacrilege, and to devise means for removing 
the pest. Much interest was manifested by those in attendance, 
and a committee composed of two physicians and Mr. Mead, was 
appointed to prepare a memorial or report to the Commoa Council, 
expressive at once of the disapprobation of the public of the blow 
aimed at the city's rural adornments, and remedial of the real evil. 
Tlie leport was made to and published by the Board of Aldermen. 

Each member of the committee advanced his plan of remedy. Mr. 
Mead's plan, was the introduction of the English sparrows (then nn- 
known iu American cities), which to day make the very trees the wood- 
man that day spared — not only themselves beautiful to look upon — 
but with the merry birds iu the branches and at the fountains — a city 
j')y Ibrever. 

As Regent of the Long Island College and Hospital, Director in 
the Brooklyn City Dispensary and Eye and Ear Infirmary, and 
member of the Managing Committee of the Brooklyn Association 
for Improving the Condition of the Poor, all having for their object 
mainly, the gratuitous relief of the material needs of the sick, 
tlestitute, and unfortunate of that city, on the one hand, and as 
Recording Secretary and Member of the Executive Committee 
of the Brooklyn City Mission and Tract Society, and in similar 
engagements with other kindred associations, having for their ob- 
ject the sjuritual well-being of the city's over-looked and neglected 
ones, on the other hand, the life here traced is rounded full with 
useful activities. 

As a public speaker, wheu aroused in discussion or in a plat- 
fonn effort, where his sympathies are enlisted, he is most elo- 
quent, powerful and convincing ; while as an effective and polished 
writer he has always m.iiatained an enviable reputation, as evi- 
djnc.^d alike by his successful competition for College prizes iu En- 
glish composition, and by his subsequent contributions to the Yale 
Literary Magazine and other publications, 
ibi 



GEORGE W. MEAD. 7 

In the midst of all his activity and earnestness of life, he neither 
forgets his faith nor his family. For rest, he only seeks the repose 
of his retired Lakeview at Waccabuc ; and in his quiet home there, 
graced, and enlivened by the presence of his accomplished wife, and 
surromided by their interesting young family of seven sons and 
daughters, " like olive plants roundabout them " — no spectator of the 
scene could be more conscious than he that he is in the full noon- 
tide of his life's sunshine. 



185 




.JX^ ^ C^e 




THOMAS LE CL^AR, N. A. 

;d to Messrs. G. P. PiitrDan & Son for this sketch, from Tuckerman'a 
" Book of the Artists." 

Sr^MOXG the comparatively few American portrait-painters 
who have steadily progressed in their art, is Thomas Le 
Cl^ar; he was born in Owego, Tioga conntj, N. T., 
March 11, 1818. His first instinctive attempt at portrait- 
ure was made at the age of nine, with lamp-black, Venetian red, and 
white-lead, upon a bit of pine board. Of an inspiring temper, at the 
age of twelve he attempted a St. Matthew, which made a sensation 
in that rural vicinage ; copies were ordered of the boy-painter at the 
rate of two dollars and a half each, and many a head did the urchin 
dash off to the wonder of his rustic neighbors. The unnatural strain 
upon his undeveloped faculties by this premature exercise of a 
genuine artistic talent, without the wholesome discipline of methodi- 
cal training and gradual practice, so depressed his vital energies 
that young Le Cl(^ar soon had to forego his favorite occupation, — a 
fortunate disappointment, as he thereby regained strength, and 
probably avoided faulty habits of execution, which, otherwise, would 
have been confirmed. In 1832, his father removed to London, 
Upper Canada, a thinly-settled and ungeuial place, where Le Cl^ar 
painted a few portraits, but met with little sympathy and no en- 
couragement, until the Hon, John Wilson, a former member of 
Parliament, recognized the latent ability of the youth, commended 
and cheered his isolated labors, and sat to him for a portrait, which 
was so successful that thenceforth he had an abundance of commis- 
sions. In 1834:, during a lapse in the demand for portraits, and 
when he was but sixteen years of age, Le Cltiar visited Goodrich, on 
Lake Huron, and decorated the panels of a steamboat, under the 
direction of the owners, whose taste was exclusively for " low art," 
189 



to tho vlisjjusi of tl\o paintor, wlio dosiivil t.> |vrli;iv liistoric!\l sooiuvs. 
l•;:(J^>r to n<t«rn t«> (ho " Stntivs," ho K^ft Hoodrioli for Norfolk, N. Y., 
tt small town. \vho<v. tor two youiv. l\o livod by any honorahlo work 
lio iviiKl tl»ti, pniivnui!: "whon opportui\ity otVoixni. Thonoo Ivo wont 
l>Oivou llu-, \Visoon*iii, skotohiuj;; Indiatis on tlio wav ; hoiv lio 
t\>uml adoquato ovvujvUion tor tho sunimor; auil ovon vontiiivd ,-» 
jv»rt of hi* i\»riun_jjs in tho l!»i>d-v-«pooul;»tio»s, wliioh was tho uiatiia 
of tlu> day in that ix^i^ion ; but with.nit any pi\v<p!.'rv.>ns ivsiilt. Ko- 
visitinj? LonvUm, IT. 0., his tVioud Wilson advisoil him to s?o to Xow 
York city. Tho ons«inj» spring ho starto-1 for that gi>al, but his 
t\n\ds jpwo out at Klutini, N. Y., and ho l»ad to ivsort to ovory 
availablo moAns t'^r sub.ustcuoo. This was tho niost tryina; part of 
his novJtiato in artist-Hfo; viisoourjiijoii and noi^ly, for thoiv M-as 
Uttlo ill tor artistic work in that roijion at tho porlod, tho doath of 
his mother advlod to his dospvindoncy, and for a considorablo time ho 
had not tho hoart to t!»ko up tho j^onoil and palotto. 

Ho shortly at>orwa»\ls wont to Koohostor, whoro bo riMnaint\l two 
\'x\»rs, mooting with muoh onoounjjjomont, and stoadily pi\>givssitisi 
in his art. At tho ond of this timo, in 1S30, ho wont to Now York, 
whorv\ on his arri\-5il, ho found himself pi^ssoss^xl of but sixty-throo 
0vM>ts, with whiv*h to Ivgin Hfo in tb.o groat iuctn>jH>li!j. Ilo so^m 
a\ado frionds, howowr, and, Unng industrious, laokod not for tho 
moans of sup}H>rt, For svmuo timo ho oooupioil a studio in the 
grsnito building, corner of Broadway atid ChamWrs Stroots, now 
Dehnonicvvs Hotel. IfoTo ho i^jintovi niatu' ixirtraits and other 
pictures; one, which ho accotnplishei alter sevorv lalK>r and study, 
was entitled " The Koprimand." It attrsu-tovl much attention from 
«rtish» and critics, frvnu its ev>rrv>etness of di-awing and harn>ony of 
Ci^lor, and vr*s pmvhase^i by tho Art Union, then in the height of 
its }x>\r*r. In IS44 he married a d.^nghfojr of R«ss<>ll R Wells, R-sq., 
of R^ton, Mjvss.. who died Jnly. lSi>9. The following spring ho 
vnent to Buffalo, \vl»er»^ he intended to stay a short time, l>nt 
i*main^,l, te.^lonsly pursuing his protession until IS(>0. when he re- 
tumeil U^ New Yv^rk. whotv he hojvs to pass the reaiaindor of his d,\vs. 



THOMAB LK C L £ A K, ,V . A . 3 

One of his warmoat frJerids, and the most active and efficient snp- 
portera of art which he found in Buffalo, was the Jlon. II. W. 
itogere, now Prc:^id(;rit of the Fine Art Academy lately established 
there, who is a gentletnaa of fine tafete, cultivated mind and gener- 
ous impulaca. During hia long reiidericc in BuD^lo Mr. Lc Clear 
devoted himself ahnoit exclusively to portraiture, although occas- 
ional compositions cume from his easal. Several of this latter class 
of works arc among his moit noticeable proluctions. One of them, 
the " Marble Players," which was purchased by the Art Union, 
attracted much and deserved attention. Another is "Young 
America," described in another part of this sketch, painted to order 
for the late Colonel A. Portf;r, of Niagara Falls, and now in posses- 
sion of Mr. Congdon, of Brooklyn. The last picture of the above 
character painted by Le Cloar is the "Itinerants," elsewhere 
described, which was in the National Academy exhibition of 1802. 
Mr. Le Cliiar was elected an associate af the Academy in 1802, and 
an academician in 1863. He also fills at the present time C1864j, 
the office of director in the Buffalo Academy of Fine Arts. He 
occupies a studio in the Tenth Street Building, New York, where, 
surrounded by other artists, he devotes himself entirely to his art. 
It is to be hoped that he will, without entirely giving up portraiture, 
yet make it only of secondary importance, and hereafter pursue, as 
a speciality, tho.^e genre compositioas in the occasional productioas 
of which he lias shown, already, himself to be a master. Mr. Le 
Clear originated and developed the Fine Art Academy of Buffalo, 
herein mentioned. 

"Young America," which contaias over a dozen figure.?, is re- 
markalile for its skillful grouping, and the harmony of tone which 
pervades it. The chief interest of the work centres in " Young 
America," a lad, who, from the top of a drygoods box, is making a 
speech to the boys gathered about him. The figures are admir- 
ably drawn, and each is evidently a study from life. The man 
in the blouse, the two boys wrestling, the girl carrying a basket, 
and the old woman with afjples, are especially noticeable. The 
I'Jl 



looalitv is it stiool in Uutlalo, ami tho man on tlio si^lowalk ovi- 
ilontlv oi\^'!igo»l in counting nj> his* gains is a jiortrait of a woll- 
known oponUor iu stooks. who gv>os by the nsvuio of " thivt> per oont. 
u month," 

Tho "Itini'nuits" ivpivsont^i a Ih\v phuing on a viiilin. and ai»- 
CiMnpaiiiixl l\v his sistor, who lias drawn aivund him an mlniiring 
gi\>uj> of listonoiv. oaoh ono of whom is dilVoivntl)' alVoi'tod bv tho 
unisio, tvs is shown in tho varioil oxpivssion ot thoir ooun tenants. 
As in tho last-niontionod piotuiv, oaoh liguro is a study from lite, 
and is drawn and painti\l with givat oaivfiilnoss. Tho sontiniont of 
tho piotim^ is tinoly piworvod, and tho outiiv work harmoniously 
carried out in all its details. 

\Ye have spoken of Lo OU\«r as a signal example of steady piw 
gn»ss in jK>rtraituiv. A singular test was alVorded us, at a recent 
visit to bis studio. Tbeiv bad been touud at Owegv\ N. Y., his 
'bildhoovl's homo, a portrait fivm his band, at the age of nine. Tho 
,lnnving was so like a l>oy iu tho oxaggvM-jited outline of sleeve and 
slioulder 5»s to excite a smile; tho drawing, of eoui-se, wjis very dt."- 
t'eetive, and the color crude ; but a decided individual expivssion of 
the moutb, and something characteristic in the whole j>bysiognomy, 
rude and unsutKlucvl as is tho execution, made us ivadily believe tho 
assertion of the family, to whom tho coatee old canvsis Wlongs, that 
it was a "striJ:in<i likeness," To this native tacility for imitation 
Le Olojxr now unites roniarkablo jx^werof eluwietorization, a jHX'uliar 
skill in cv^lor, and minute authenticity iu tho ivprvxluctiou of latent 
as well .IS suivrticial poi-souiJ trait*. In some casos his tints are ad- 
mirably true to natuiw and his modelling of the head strvnig and 
cbiujjctoristic, Whi>ovor is famili.ar with tho asj>oct and oxprossi<m 
of the lato Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson, of Binghamton, N. Y., will 
nnvgnir*^ in T.o Clear's iv\rtrait of him, in the attitude. oomplcKiou, 
eye, nu^uth. etv>tuu»e, natural langnsujo, and exprt^ssion, tho very man 
binjsolf ; aTid whoever h;»s ot"tou soon Edwin Biv>th as Hamlet, and 
woU knows bis fooe oft' the stag*>, will find that Lo Clear's portrait is 
a u\!istorpioiv, not oulv sv? a i\\semblance, but iu point of clu^ractcr, 
UV2 



individuality, and powerful expressiou. We might also cite his 
portraitB of ex-President Fillmore ; Col. Thorpe ; Col. Porter, now 
in the possession of his sister at Niagara Falls ; of Gifford ; McEntee, 
and Hubbard, the artists, as illustrations of his j^eculiar fidelity and 
maturity of execution. His portrait of Mr. John E. Eusaell and 
Mr. George Dennisfjn, ex-Xaval Officer of the port of New 
York, are instances of firm, truly tinted, strongly outlined, and 
clearly expressed heads, with vital truth and vigorous yet refined 
treatment — indicating how well Le Clear has etudied his art, how 
truly he recognises cJi/J/racter as essential, and with what insight he 
haa succeeded in combining the analytical and the realistic elements 
of portraiture. 

Since the foregoing sketch was written, Mr. Lcj Clear has remained 
a resident of New York, constantly engaged in bminess in his studio. 
The years that have passed since Tuckerman paid homage to his 
genius have added to his reputation as an artist. Men and women 
of eminence, persons representing the tliU of society, not only in 
New York, but throughout the country, vie with each other in 
having their portraits painted by him. Mr. Le Clear was the first 
artist who had the temerity to increase the charges for painting a 
bust, to seven hundred and fifty dollars. This may seem a large 
sum, but in reality it is quite moderate. Painting is an art in 
which few men excel, and portrait painting is especially diflicult. 
Fidelity to the original is required absolutely, hence to the genius to 
execute mu.st be added that patient labor which can alone produce 
perfection. No greater proof of the high estimation in which Mr. Le 
Clear's work is held can be required than the fact that he was able 
to obtain the sum named over all his competitors ; and although he 
has steadily maintained this price, there has been no time in which 
he has not been cTowded with orders. His studio is the resort of 
all connoisseurs of fine portrait paintings; for there will always be 
found specimens of his work unrivaled for correctness of delineation 
and for that perfectly natural expression which makes one half fancy 
that the "counterfeit pr.,--entment " is a living, breathing reality 
193 



wlioso hod\\ pi>vli:ii>s, has mysteriously ilisappoaiwl, but \\ll..^c Inisl 
uiul lic;ul roiuains onilowod witli lit'o and soouiiug as it' about to 
move and to spoali. 

His portraits of ladies and children are characterized by s^reat 
tenderness and dolieaey, and though sometimes too nuicli idealized, 
ire natural and lite-like. His suecoss in painting portraits ol' 
iceeasiHl persons, from i>hotographs or daguerreotypes, is remark- 
able; and that, too, in iustanees where ho had not seen the original. 
This may be assigned as nuieh to his natural quickness of percep- 
tion iu arriving at certain characteristics of mind and pei-sou from 
the description given by friends, jis from his knowledge of art — 
enabling him to judge correctly of form and feature from a photo- 
graph. 

.\t the pivsent writing Mr. Le 01<>ar is engaged in preparing a 
series of portraits of our representative men. Ilis design is to group 
togi'ther [wintings repivsoiiting those members of the sevenil intel- 
leotuid professions of the day who best illustrate in themselves the 
types of superiority in each. Thus, in the profession of the law thci-e 
aiv portrjiits of two eminent la\vvoi"s, Mr. George Ticknor Curtis and 
Mr. E. "W". Stonghton, both of whom have acipiired considerable 
reputation at the bar. In the drama, the type of histrionic excel- 
lence is i-epivsented by Mr. Edwin Booth, and in Mr. Jamos Eussell 
TaiwoH's picture we see a distinguished i-epreseutative of American 
jHvtic genius. The idea of this series of paintings is most commend- 
able. When completed it will, in i-OiUity, comprise a pictuiv gsUlery 
of types of the genius of this country. We know of no similar 
serie.> executed by another artist ; lience we credit Mr. Le Clear with 
a mivst happy and original conception. All those pictm-es, it must 
he undei'stood, are painted with ox'quisite taste and artistic skill. 
The artist is one of the most indefatig;\ble of our professional men. 
and iH>rforms an alm*%st incivdible amount of work. To natural 
talent he has united dtvp study and untiring energy. Such a combina- 
tion of fj»vor!ible qualities is rai-ely met with in one man. It is doubt- 
ful if anv other of our artists can pi\xluce as lar>;e an amount of work 
104 



THOMAS LK OLEAB, N. A. 7 

in a given time, as Mr. Lo Cloar. To a frreat extent the rapidity 
of his execution is due to the fact that he is a complete master of his 
art, and can, therefore, prosecute liis labors imlnterruptedly. 

Conversing with a friend not long ago, himself the art critic of 
bility and sound judgment, connected w-ith one of the leading 
newspapers of New York— he expressed the opinion that if Mr. Le 
Clciar was a resident of an European country he would long ago 
have been the recipient of government honors. In this republic, 
however, artists and men of letters are seldom singled out by the 
authorities for special honors. Occasionally Congress deigas to look 
patronizingly upon them, but when it does this the chances are that 
it makes itself ridiculous either by bestowing its favors upon an un- 
worthy object, or that it destroys the value of its action by its manner 
of acting. The fact is that in these days artists do not depend upon 
the patronage of governments either for fame or for wealth. True 
enough they stiil value the bit of ribbon, the medal, and, in 
monarchical countries, a title, but, on_the whole, they mount to the 
to|j of the ladder pretty much by their own unaided exertions. Mr. 
Le Clear is one of those artists who owes his reputation to sheer 
talent and hard work, and the eminence he has obtained in his art 
is well attested by the ari-ay of distinguished persons who have sat 
to him for portraits." It vrould, of course, be impossible in any 
moderate space to name them all, but we may say that they repre- 
sent all parts of the country, and belong to all professions. The 
Cliief-Justice Taney, William H. Seward, Eev. Dr. Vinton, Parke 
Godwin, Talmer, the Sculptor, General Baxter, Rev. Thos. Preston, 
ex-Govemor J. G. Smith, of Vermont, H. D. Newcoinbe, Louisville, 
Ky., Isaac Caldwell, Ky., Hon. II. S. McCorab, of Wilmington, 
Delaware, Judge C. P. Daly, of New York, Lewellyn Haskell, of 
New Jersey, and others. In fine, Mr. Le Clear can produce a galaxy 
of names of prominent men whose portraits he has painted, remark- 
able in all respects. There is an Eastern proverb which says that 
" what is most sought is best," and however uncertain it may be in 
many respects it is, at any rate, applicable to a profession, which 



! I- U A K , N . A . 



contnins so niaiij' able iiion, as that of paiiitinn;. That the subject 
of this sketcli is soiiglit by the best judges of fine art is ouo of tho 
ovidcnees of his talents. Of the character of Iiis work, a full and 
admirable analysis of its merits will be found in the fareij^oinij pages. 
We can only agree with tho opinion therein expressed and echo tho 
praise so generally and unstintingly accorded. 

In his personal appearance, Mr. Le Clear is stout-built, with a 
tendency to corpulency. He is abuut the niodiuin height, with a 
frank, gonial features, and a most intellectual and pleasant expression 
of countenance. Sociably he makes a delightful companion. Full 
of animal spirits, jocund and lively ; his never-failing humor imparts 
the utmost agreeability wherever he is. Full of tenderness, too, 
loving tho right because it is good, hating the wrong because it is 
bad, ho is a man of warm heart and generous sentiments, and liberal 
in tho extreme, as most artists ai-e. Mr. Ls Clear has been twice 
married, his second wife being the only daughter of James S. King 
of New York. To this lady ho was wedded during the close of 
1870, and we need scarcely say that the virtues of the liusbaud are 
not loss conspicuous than the genius of the artist. 
196 




\SyyOo(.,^^'0^a 



Cl/t-yO^ 



OLIVER CIIARLICK. 

^ subject of this sketch was born in humble life, in the 
First "Ward of New York, in 1815. His parents gave him 
^t^ such an education in the rudiments as their means would 
admit, and the lad being naturally ambitious, profit- 
ed to the full extent of his slender opportunities. At the ao-e of 
fifteen he entered as clerk the wliolesale Grocery House of Gar- 
dener & Howell, and at nineteen had risen to be chief clerk of an 
importing house in Broad Street. His employers, sustaining heavy 
losses, became bankrupt, and so high was young Charlick held in 
the estimation of the mercantile community for integrity and ability 
that at this early age he was selected by the creditors, among whom ' 
were Victor Bardalow, E. H. Nicoll, Scribner, and Hickcock, lead- 
ing merchants, to close out the business and divide the assets. After 
this he went into business on his own account, and j^rospered until 
the great fire of 1835, which devastated the First "Ward, then the 
business centre of New York, almost ruined him. But he rose su- 
perior to disaster. Opening a grocery and ship chandlery, he en- 
gaged in the supply of coast-wise and sea-going vessels with stores. 
He gave the closest attention to business, being personally on hand 
early and late to meet the wants of his customers. By this means 
he prospered abundantly, for those days, and soon became recog- 
nized as a rising and successful merchant. 

In 1843, although still young, he Mas drawn into politics. He 
was nominated and elected as an independent candidate for Assis- 
tant Alderman of the First "Ward. Subsequently he was chosen 
Alderman, and for three terms represented his native ward with 
credit and fidelity in the Common Council. In the latter part of 
197 



his KlluM.-il I'iti-i'cr ho was Pn'siilmt of tlu' l>>i;u\l ami aotiii^' M.'iyor 
(hiring tlio nhsiMU'o of Nfuvor lljivoimnw. Tliis hittor patriot io 
and puMio spirito*! mx^'istiiito, whivso iituno is still svaoiiyiiums with 
tho lii>st i<ni ill Now Yiuk iiuinioipal iilViiii's, ooncoivotl u tVioiulsliip 
Hjul iwspoot l"or Mr. C^'harliok fi\>ui this otlioial ivlutiou, whioh, sur- 
viving all tho mutation* of party strit'o, and sivial ohaiigo-<, o.mtin- 
uos unintorrnptoil to this ilay. 

Mr. Charliok was toniloi\>il tho nomination for Mayor; but hav- 
injj ivsolvtxl to rotiiv t'roin politics, ho dooliiavl tho honor, ami nv 
turuini to moivantilo pursuit;*, Tho gv>Ul oxoitomont in IStO wa* 
tho gvildou opportunity of matiy an ontor]»rising man, ami Mr. 
Oharliok was not slow to soo tho aihantajjivs whioh it otloiviL In 
ivnnwtion with Marshall O. li.>bi>rts aiul othors, ho took an intoR'st 
in an opposition lino of stoamships on tho Paoitio, ami wont out 
and g!ivo tho bnsinoss his olosest iH>rsoi«vl suporvision. Such wju 
his onorgy and fonvsight, that in tit'twu months, twm tho nu»#t 
moagiv Ivijinuinyis, juid with quito inadequate rosouivos, ho had 
plaivd his ontorpriso on suoh stablo foundation, that tho old lino 
p>vo way, and a ovmsolidation took place. Whou success wjis !»s- 
sujvd ho roturnoil to Now York, and entered upi>n the construction 
of tho Kightli Avenue Rivilroad. For sovon years ho had tho solo 
n>an;uitMnout of tins lino, and when ho n?ti!vd ho turned o\"er to tho 
stvH'k-holdei-s a rwul built of an expeuso of ^SOO.OOO, freo of cost 
out of the earniuiTs, after iwyiuji twelve per cent, dividend in the 
interim. 

In ISdO ho disp^^sod of his stook in hoi^so railivads, and wont ii\to 
steam lines. Taking the Flushing Usiilroad, which \v;V5 sold under 
fortvl«.vsur\>, ho n.<uovatod it, developed its resourt^es, and sold it 
itgiviu. lie also invested hvrgely in llarlen\. Hudson River, Ver- 
mont and other lines, taking an active part in tho nisinagemout. 
Rut his main achievement was in tho resuscitation of the Long 
Island Raihvad, then a sadly dilapidatoi,! and dangerous eoncorn. 

When it becaino api^irent to the existing mansigemeut, that he 
would gv»t tho cv>nti\>l of tho nx»d, thev contrived to ham^^r iho 
19S 



O L I V K Jt C iJ A E L I C K . 3 

proporfy with all sorts of contracts ibr cxtoinions, snpplics, etc., be- 
fore he got it into lii.s possesion, anr] wlien lio finally took it, there 
wa3 not a pound of spike? on hanrj, not a cord of wood, and hardly 
a BoTind rail or tie on the track, while the rolling stock was rickety 
and almost worn out. .Judicious and economical management has 
enabled him to relay the track with new ties and rails, extend the 
branch roads, and renew the rolling stock, till now there is no safer 
nor sounder road in the country. Mr. Ciiarlick's forte as a railroad 
uianager appears to bo to develop and improve a great property, 
and then tarn it over for public use. Many of our roads are in- 
debted to him for their present proportions. 

As a man Mr. Charhck is close in his bargains, but rigid in the 
fulfillment of his obligations to the uttermost. To those whom he 
knows and can truet he is liberal and confiding to a degree, and 
many young men of this city, now rising in the world, can date 
their start in life to the time when he lent them a helping hand. 
He is ready to forgive an enemy, and he never deserts a friend. 
He is free, frank, and outspoken ; is an inveterate foe to pretenders 
of all sorts, and never considers his personal popularity when a 
question of duty Ls involved. In short, Oliver Cinrlick is emphati- 
cally a self-made, selfreliant. thoroui^hly trustworthy, progressive 
man of the present day. 

199 




> 






w^ 



PLINY FREEMAN; 

■A VETERAN IN LIFE INSUEANOE." 

BT^E are indebted to the JVew York Mercantile Journal, 
W. P. Groom, Editor, for the following complimentary 
sketch : " A noticeable feature of American society is the 
fact that many men have risen from the ordinary pursuits 
of h'fe to exalted positions of trust and influence. "We need not go 
far in proof of this, for witnesses rise up on every side, from the 
learned professions, and, indeed, from every calling in life. 

" The fact here noticed is signally illustrated in the life of Phny 
Freeman. He was born amid the Northern hills of the Empire State, 
and was early left to his own resources. His tastes inclining toward 
mercantile pursuits, he commenced his business life in a country 
store, and, after serving four years in the capacity of clerk, began 
trade on his own account. The success which here attended him, 
only stimulated him to enter upon a wider field of labor. 

" Intuitively recognizing those innate qualities which were as yet 
undeveloped within him, he detennined to leave the scene of his 
boyhood, and of his first success as a merchant, and seek his fortune 
in the great metropolis. He disposed of his merchandise, and with 
a heart gladdened by sanguine hopes of a prosperous future, he started 
for the city of New York. At an early date thereafter he connected 
himself with the wholesale di-y goods business in Hanover Square, 
(in Pearl street, below Wall,) which was at that time the great centre 
of this trade. Here he found scope for his ambitious designs, and, 
though competition was shai-p, by his business tact, strict honesty, 
and unceasing attention to the wants of his customers, he became 
one of the most prominent merchants of that day. 

"Although thug occupied, he found time for enterpn^es of n 
201 



9 r L I N Y K R E K M A N . 

benevolent character. Being the joint owner of a large tract of land 
on Gowanu3 Bay, he conceived the idea of making it the nnclens 
of a large public cemetery. IIo originated a plan, organized a com- 
pany, and, as the result, we can now boast of having a ' Greenwood, 
which is not only the most beautiful and quiet home of the dead to 
be found anywhere, but which has also served as a model for idl the 
notable cemeteries which now bless our land. 

" Mr. Freeman's attention was also early directed to life insurance, 
and the benefits which would accrue to individuals and the community 
at large, if the ]n-inciples which it involved were properly systematiz- 
ed and laithfully carried out. He gave all his leism-e moments to 
the study of this subject, seeking to understand its practical work- 
ings, as it had been in operation in England. He carefully noted the 
defects of the system, and devised many improvements which might 
be engrafted upon it, whereby failure would be rendered next to 
impossible. 

" In 1845, he organized ' The New York Life Insurance Company,' 
under the name of ' The Nautilus.' The knowledge which he had 
previously gained on this subject was now put to a practical use, and 
under his skillful management, this pioneer company rose rapidly 
in public estimation. But while its growth was rapid, it was 
also strong and vigorous, giving assurance of the success which it 
soon attained — a success mainly attributable to the indefatigable 
energy and industry of its founder. However, he was not yet satis- 
fied with what had already been accomplished, but was continually 
engaged in maturing great plans for extending its benefits. Among 
many other valuable improvements, he introduced into its policies 
the ten years' non-forfcitable clause. This was a move in an entirely 
new direction, and the results far exceeded his most sanguine expec- 
tations. 

" Mr. Freeman, although the founder of ' The New York Life,' and 

contributing so much to its prosperity by incorporating into it many 

improvetnents which he deemed of vital importance, did not confine 

his thoughts alone to that company. "With an unselfish spirit, rarely 

•20-2 



PLINr FEE EM AN. 



Been in these days, he souglit to extend the entire system of life in- 
surance, and place about it a net work of Statute laws which would 
establish all the companies, of this State at least, on a firm basis, 
and substantially pi'cvent the loss to the assured of premiums paid 
in good faith. In 1849, he originated the first general insurance 



law ever enacted. It requii-es evenj company, before issuing any 
policy, to deposit $100,000 in securities equivalent to cash with the 
Superintendent of the Life Insurance Department of the State. This 
law he drafted with his own hands, and by his personal influence 
in the Legislature procured its p;is3age. Thus has he been the means 
of compelling irresponsible companies to retire from the business, 
and preventing many otliers from commencing that which could not 
but have entailed great loss upon the public generally, besides being 
a disgrace to the cause. He continued the management of ' The 
New York Life ' until the year 1863, when, after having been per- 
sonally complimented by the Insurance Department of the State, and 
his company commended for can-ying on the largest and most success- 
ful business in the United States, he resigned his official connection 
with that institution, in order that he might obtain a resx^ite from 
his severe and exhausting labors. 

" But a man of his nervous temperament could not remain long 
inactive, so he soon threw himself again into work which he had 
enjoyed so much, and which had produced such excellent fruits. 

"In the year 1864, lie organized ' The Globe Mutual Life Insurance 
Company.' Being known as ' a veteran ' in the cause, his name was 
a tower of strength to the new company. He incorporated into it 
many novel features, the most prominent of wliich was that making 
all the policies non-forfeitable. Tliis was a bold step, and one which 
excited universal interest, both among insurers and insured. "WJiile 
the former class doubted the possibility of its being carried out in 
gooil faith, the latter hailed it as removing the gi-eatest objection 
against all life insurance. ' Tiie Globe,' thus started on a broad 
and beneficent basis, substituting for all its policies tliat might 
elapse, or be discontinued, new paid up policies for the whole amount 
203 



1 1 S \ K K K V M A 



of prxMiiiiuu that had Uvn rx\vi\i\l. at oiii-o ran far alioad ot' luanv 
of tho oUl ivmy^juiics. So grt>at, iiuKhhI, wsvs its suo«.\\ss, tiiat iu the 
tirst vtv>r of its oxistoiut' it issiuHl nearly as many }H>lioii\5 !U> woiv 
i!«\iiHl by tho old ' Now York Life ' in its sovontoonth ytvir ; and nj* to 
tho jin-siMit tinu\ inoro than any other wnn^uiy of tho sj»nio ago. Tho 
iion-fortoiturt^ principle, vrhioh, wo i«vid. Afr. Fiwaiaii inti\xhirt\l. to 
a liuiitovl oxtont into the * ^'ow Wvrk Lifo ' dnring his luanas^Mnont, 
ho at onct> niado ivf muvor#;>l application to * Tho G1oIh\' Other 
ooujpmios tvH^k thoir owo from this, and wore ct.nniH»llt\i to adopt it 
or bo U^fl still tkrthor in tho Ivick gnmnd by this cvMupany. In tlie 
retrosjHVt of twenty-tivo yoars, Mr. Frotnnan may well Ih» pnrnd of 
tho n»snlts which have attondi\l his otlorts in tho tiold in which, at 
the Wgianing of that {vri..Hl. ho was a novice, 

" His su«.>c<i\ss is well iUnstnitoi.1 by tlio unjvvRvUohxl carvx'r of ' The 
G1oIh> Lifo Insunmoe Oompuiy,' t>f which lie is tho president This 
Oomjvuiy is scareely seven years old, and yet np to January of the 
pres^nxt year, had issuovl nearly iii.iKX' ix>licies. Conunoncing with 
a casli c-^pital of $lOO,iHH>, the assets have accumulated until they 
have now reached the sum of alvjut $«»},OCK\,000. This nnprecevlonte^l 
grvwth places 'The Glv>l>e' among tho fit^st companies «.^' tho coun- 
try, and at the same time shows what the patience, enea'v:j_v and dotor- 
minevl j>er5everauiv ot' one man can accomplish. 

" Mr. Frvoman, while thus devoting so much time to tho subject of 
life insurance, and giving so mudi i>ers^>nal attention to his a\n\ 
cvani«ny. has made himself thoroughly Cvmversant with the many 
im(K>rtaut questiotis which havo agitated the country for the past 
few years, esjvcially that of tinance. This he Wlieves to l»o tho 
most imiHVtant question <.>f the day, and comsequonily has given 
it much ihougljt. He is one of those who hold, with us, that the 
tinaucial system of the Government will not be placed on a s^^lid and 
,>uduring basis until the cirvulatiug meviium shiUl consist only of 
.^Vii/Awm/ A»/vr Mortify made a jiexfeot measure of values, through 
intervhs5J\geability of such currency, at holders' option, with Go»-eni- 
meot Kwds bearing a.jiuft? rate of interest. As earlv as tho voar 1S62, 
2V"i 



he embodied these view, in au able letter to the, then, Secretary of 
the Treasury. If hi« suggestions had been fully adopted at the time 
the greater portion of the financial difficulties which the nation has 
since experienced would have been avoided ; the national debt would 
have been kept within a much smaller compass, and, at the same 
tune, the burden of taxation would have been greatly reduced. 

"Mr. Freeman, while giving to the public the rich experience of a 
mature manhood, considers his work but just begun. Xone can 
doubt that the future career of so eminent a man will add still greater 
lustre to his name, and strengthen the high regard in which aU the 
world holds the American citizen," 
205 




^.^■/-J^ 



Jjll 1). WILLAl^D lilJSS. 



?;,¥>S. D. WILLARD BLISS, Bon of Ol^adiah and MHiilk Poole 
'CTv^ BliHH, waH Ijorti iit Auburn, N. Y., on the Ibth of Auguwt, 
's^'^ 1825. The lather of Mih. Bliss wa» liev. Jcptha Poole, a 
Presbytc'rian clergyman, who wa» for a number of yean* settled in 
Auburn, N. Y., and afterwards emigrati^d to Troy, Gr^auga Co., Ohio. 
The father of our subject was the proprietor of large woolen mills 
in Morrisville, Madison Co., N. Y., and, having failed in business 
during the financial crisis of 18-37, he emigrated from Ma/liwjn to 
Thompson, Geauga Co., Ohio, where he continued to pursue hia 
original occupation. Here young Bliss, at tlie tender age of twelve 
years, earned by hard labor his daily bread, during the summer sea- 
son, and in the winter months attendwl a school taught by M. G. Leg- 
gett, Esq., late general in the volunteer army of the United States, 
and now TJ. 8. Commissioner of Patents. In 1840 his father 
movwl to Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where he erected 
extensive woolen mills, in which Willard work*^ for five years, at- 
tending school during brief intervals, at the Asbury Seminary, of 
which L. D. Williams, Esq., now Professor of Mathematics in Mead- 
vi He College, Pa., was the j>rinriple. During the summer months 
of these years his studies were not forgotten. While running a 
spinning jack, in the mill, his Vjook was placed on a rest stretched t^ 
the roller of the jack, and it was under such circumstances lie prose- 
cuted the study of latin, and laid the toundation of his future knov.]- 
ledge and sucwws. 

He commenced the study of medicine in 1'344 much against his 
207 



(juUim's wish, wh < olVi'ivil him ii ilisinihlo intorost in lh(> wi^olon 
mills, 10 ilivoit l».n» (Vom his iloIoni\in;»tii>u <o nv-iuiiv u i>ivlo,ssion. 
lloonto)-i\l tho oOiiv of IWtois Clark aiul l^ivwn.nf Chagrin Falls, 
Ohio, nvnv ivsiilonts and pn>n»inont j>hysioiiins ot Potivit, Miohiijan. 
Ihuior iho tuiti.'n ot' thoso pniotitionoi's ho ivntinuiHl oiioyoar, whon 
ho wrnt to Clovolan»l, Ohio, to atlonJ hvl\uvs in tho Moilioal l>o- 
jwrimont ot" \\\>storn Uosorvo Oolloiyt^, whoiv hoontoixnl tho otUoo of 
Prv^tKssorHoraooA, Aokloy.onooftho most oniinont andaoivniplishod 
purj^vus in tho wi^siorn States at that tinio. Ho gnuUiatinl in tho 
chvssof IS-kS-tJ). r.nd ivniaintHl in Dr. Aokloy's olluv until tho sum- 
iMo.rofl84;K Or, lUixs was tho osjnvial 1an>rito of his jn-iwptor, 
wlio ofiou i^nnlii ttnl tho tntuiv oniinouiv and poj>uUvrity of his young 
pupil, and oxpn^stHi ontiiv \\mUuUukv in his pixUossional aptitude 
and natural ahilitiv^. Whilo in tho olVuv o( Prs. Clark and Urown, 
tho lirni of Uliss. Poolo and Woston was oixvting largx^ \\\H>lon 
luills. aud laiH»\si to sivtirv tho sorviivs of a pnu'tioal tuaohinost, tUoy 
«}>|»litHl to tho oldor IMiss to i\\»unnond some oi>uv{HMont {vrson, 
which ho did hy nMorring thoui to his son. WiUarvl. Thoy im- 
UHxiiatoly on\ployv>l tho young luau. thou only twouty yoiu^ of ago, 
who suvVT\\U\i in sotting tho Uxmis. ainuvgiug tho e«t.iro maohinory 
of tho nulls. aiuJ placing (hom in succosslul oiH?.ratiou, to tho entire 
saiisfiwtkm of his oiuplojvrs. After the job w;is Ovimplotoil thoy 
otl^Txxl hiiu a lai-gt^ s^vlary to nnnaiu sis suivrvisor of their mills, but 
he wjy pi\>niptly d»vlitu\l. His hojvrt was tix^l uinm the idosj of 
Kwnxing a physicism. and he politely infonutxi them that the viUue 
of their entire i>stablishn>out cvnild not ^vrsuade hiiu lrv>m his pur- 

In IS49 IWtor BHss married 5^>phia Prvutis*. daughter of the 
Kev. Samuel IVntiss,a l^tptist clerg\-manthen, and now a rx\>,ident 
of Cleveland, Ohi<v Alvut this t"une his lather agsiin tailorl in biisi- 
ness, and the IXnMor. with his brother. Milton, wvnt ti^ Chagrin Falls, 
.HmitvH^k c*>aTve of and e»>nduct«.>l tluMuills. in hojv thei\>by to rescue 
s>innethiug frvnn the wnvk. Purine tbat voiir he wsis otVa called 



IJ. VVlLLAkD iiJAHH. 3 

Upon to poiforrri iinjjr,! t;i;it, and difricnll Hiiri^icjil opcration.s in tliat 
vicinity, which attracted the attention of the puhiic to those HUperior 
(lualihcatiorifl which have since so distinguished him. Being with- 
out financial resources he determined to remove west, and settled in 
Ionia, Michigan, on Grand Kivcr, at the head of navigation. There 
he practiced medicine three years, riding often from ten to sixty 
miles from home, in the suriounding country. In 1854, he removed 
to Grrand llapids, Michigan, for the purpose of seeking a more com- 
pact and lucrative field of operations, and giving liis abilities wider 
8co[je. Here he formed a partnership with Dr. E. L. Henderson. He 
perlbrrned many important operations, and was the surgeon univer- 
sally sought after in all North Western Michigan, being recognized 
as the most skillful and successful operator in that region. 

At the breaking out of the rebellion. Dr. Bliss took the deepest 
interest in public afi'airs, and his office was for some time the head- 
quarters of military enlistment and preparation, in Grand liapid.i, 
for the 3d Regiment ot Michigan Volunteers. He t<jok an active 
[tart in its organization, and was commissioned its first surgeon. He 
repaired to Washington with his regiment, arriving there June 18th, 
1861, at which time he was commissioned Brigade Surgeon of Vol- 
unteers, by President Lincoln, and assigned to the staff of Gen'l 
I. B. Richardson, Commanding 3d Brigade, 3d Division, 3d 
Corj)s, Army of the Potomac. In May, 1862, Gen'l Richardson 
was placed in command of a division, and Brig. Gen'l BeiTy ordered 
to succeed him Surgeon Bliss remained on Gen'l Berry's staff' until 
the anny arrived in front of Yorktown, when he was as-igned to the 
staff of Major Gen'l Phil. Kearney, commanding 3d Division, 3d 
Corps. 

During the winter of 1861-62, he instituted a regular system of 
instniction for the medical officers of the brigade, and drilled its 
ambulance corps, the effect of which was especially noticeable in the 
supf;rior efficiency of these two important branches of the service, in 
the campaign immediately following. During the marches up the 



IViiiiisula. nml «t tlu' HaitK-s nl Williamsluiig ami Fair Oaks, tlu- 
|uvmi>t nttoutioii ix'iuloivd tlu> siok aiul wouuiKhI, ami thogvnoral 
elUoioiu'v of t ho Moiliial IVpartmont, uivilor l\isilinvtioi», woiv part'c- 
ularly nt>tu\')»l>lo, aiul nvoivinl high ooininoiulaliiui t"i\>in tho Uoni'ial 
ol'lho DivissivMi, auvl tho Modioal HiixYtor of tho Aimy of tho I'oto- 
luao, ii\ lus olUoial ooiiuuuniojitioiis. His hoalth having Ivooiuo 
soriously imimiivd in oonso>(i;oiKV of iho sovoiv moiital ami physi- 
oiil taxation in»ju>si\l upon him <hiring thoso niaivhos ami b:»ttlos, ho 
was gnvutinl ton tlays loavo of absomx*. and wont to Washington. At 
tlio oxpimtion of tliat loavo, his hoalth not Iving ivstoroil, ho was 
assigmxl to duty in tho hosipitals in Washiiigtou, at Kjiipliauy ami 
i:>th St. r>aj>tist ohnivhos. 

His snporior disoipliuo ami arrangvinont of thoso two liospitals. 
ovinoing his poouliar titnoss for hospital sorviiys, ami his uusur- 
jK>s!<tHi oxooutivo abilitios, nwunnoudoil him to tho Moilioal 
Dijov'tov as tho man of all othoi-s suitnblo to tako ohaig* of a Gononvl 
iK>spi(rtl, and ho \v,»s a^.\^n\lingly ussigntnl to duty in ohargo of tlu^ 
V. 8. lunuu-al lK»spiial at Armory Squato. Of tho managomont of 
that hospital, and tho impn>vonioutsiustituti.Hl, aluii>st ivvoiut ioniz- 
ing and ivtiovating tho wholo lK»spit«l systom thou in opomtion; ol 
tho disoiplino in"sdl tho mimito details, and routiuo of daily hospital 
oxporioKiv ; of h s porsonal oaK> for tho oouit'ort.-t of caoh indiviilua! 
nudor his ohaivo. wo may loam from tho lips of thout^uids now 
soattonnl thnnighout tho ivnutry — fi\>m tht>so who visittnl tho 
luvspitiU to l<.H>k aftor thoir doar onos lying siok or wounditl ihoiv, 
fixMU nur»>s and imnlioal othwi-s, but ospocially fivm tluv^o who woiv 
tho nvipiouts of his ii'asoloss caiv, and skillful attouiion. All six-ak of 
thosuj-gxvn in cluu-go of Armory Siimvre Ha<pital with aw ontlmsi- 
astio pniiso and gn\titwdo n»A>ly witnosssotl. Wo iiud tho gmu socivt 
\>t' his siuw^ss in h^vspital niauagvnnout, iiot alono in oxoiuiivo and 
l«\>tossional ability, b\it in his ^vrsoual su|H>rvision of each and 
every doivstrimnt nr.dor his chai-ge. Ho did not sit in his s«ai «>f 
authority, aud issue his oulei-s to his suWnlinatos, trusting to thoir 
210 



I). WILI,AK1J IlLIHH. 5 

implicit fil/o(]if!iiw, l.ut, lie w^nt iiiiiori;^- (ho vviinlH, oW-rvd rniniiti,'!;, 
inquired, examined, Hw^frc.Hted, corrcclerl and inifirovi-d ; in a word, 
cared for tlic cvery-day wants ofthoHC who worr^ Huffcring for the 
Haiic of their country. lie performed all the surgical operationn — 
liiH former experience in that branch of the medical profeHBion 
peculiarly fittin;:; him for that duty. He inHtituted a thorough new 
syHtcni of dietetics for the hospital, which proved ho valuable as to 
induce the ajipointment of a Board by the Hurgeon General, of which 
Dr. Bliss was chairman, which reported unanimously in its favor, 
and which was Bubsequcntly mloptcd for the general hospitals; 
besidcH which he was the author of other and important reforms in 
the service, of which space will not allow mention. Particularly was 
he 8ucr;essful in the effort to throw around his hospital the atmosphere 
of home. Soldiers, thousands of young men, far away from the 
influences of near relatives and friends, sick, woundi;d, sufFerinf all 
the agony of home sickness, brought in from hattle-fieldx, and field- 
hospitals, longed for the kind, sympathetic words and tniatment they 
found at Armory Square. Various amusements and employment 
for the convalescing were instituted in and about the hospittil. To 
the " l)oys " it had the charm of home, and was cf>nducted with that 
true spirit of patriotism and humanity, which is prompted by love 
of country, and sympathy for suffering humanity. 

The war being finished, and Armory Square Hofq)ital dosed, 
Surgeon Bliss was mustered out of service in December, 1864, and 
immediately commenced the private practice of the medical profes- 
sion in Washington city, where he has earned fur himself the first 
position in point of pecuniary receipt, and the high ch iracter of the 
families whose confidence he has secured. While in the U. S. service 
he was twice brevettcd for faithful and meritorious service. 

At this time no man of the profession, in the metropolis stands 

higher than Dr. Bliijs. While remarkable for the energy and 

skill with which he pursues his profession, he is no less so for bin 

unscKish, generous bearing toward his professional co«/'yc/-e«, and his 

211 



tiiioomiiromisliiji; lioslility to ovnvtliii j; tlml smv(Ms oC illiluTiility nu.l 
iiijuslico. Dr. liliss is in tlir ininiror life, of lino jn rsoiml ndilrcss, 
impressive physiciiio, ami lias iIk' pioniisu of luunj yours of usolul- 
iii'»i(< uiul disiinoliiia. 



[By i)<:nn\mU)n v/t: take UiU) oketch from a blograpbt'.'al work pabliithed by the Atlantic 
PublUliiri!? Company, X. V.] 

ROBEIIT KINGSTON SCOTT, 

GOVERNOR OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 

f^llE Kiibject of the prcBent sketeli, in his life and character, 
r is a worthy illoBtration of tliat peculiar type of American 

-^1;^ nature which, encouraged by the generous institutions of 
our country, asserts its self-reliance in all the conditions of 
human experience, and achieves great results with no other help than 
such as springs from the latent energy of individual men. In his 
person, he likewise illustrates the influence of a sturdy ancestral 
gt'jck — strong, healthy brain, and well developed j/hjwiue — perpet- 
uated through a long line, and preserved to the present generation ; 
characteristics of mind and body which, being grafted on our race 
from the parent tree, have become distinct, national and emphatic. 

Robert Scott, the grandfather of Robert K. Scott, was born in 
the North of Ireland, where his ancestors took refuge after the bat- 
tle of Culloden in 1746, wherein the Clan Bucclcuch, to which they 
belonged, were defeated and put to flight. 

Previous to the Revolutionary war, he emigrated, with his three 
brothers, to this country, and at the age of seventeen entered the 
colonial army. In this he served with credit during the eventful 
struggle. On the termination of the war he settled at Shamokin, 
Northumberland ox»unty, Pennsylvania, and there died. The re- 
maining three brothers lived in Maryland and Virginia. 

John, the father of Robert K. Scott, was born and reared near 

Shamokin. He, too, was a soldier in the army of the United States 

during the war of 1812, with his brother William G. Scott, who was 

an officer, where his comtnander, and own second cousin, Gen. Win- 

213 



2 KUllKKT KINIiSTON SCOTT. 

(iold Scott, won liis oarlv laurels. After tlio war Jobn Scott removed 
to iVj-mstroiig countv, IVniisylvauiii, and, in 182(>, his son, Eobert. 
K., the pi-esent Governor of Sonth Carolina, was tlicrehorn. 

Although facilities lor acquiring a thorougli education in tliosc 
days were more limited than at the present time, Rohert K. received 
fhe best elementary instruction which the common schools afforded, 
until, at the age of sixteen, he went to Ohio that he might have bet- 
ter educational facilities. Among other schools, he attended Central 
College for a time. After pui-suing the study of medicine, and at- 
tending lectures at the Starling Medical College, in 1850 he crossed 
the plains in that mighty procession of emigi-ants who then began to 
people the new State of California. The trip was made in sixty 
days, at that time, the shortest on record. He engaged first in min- 
ing, and then in the practice of medicine, with varying success, un- 
til 1851, when, atlera prospecting tour in Mexico and South Ameri- 
ca, he returned to the States. The Great "West was but sparsely 
settled, and the yoxmg physician determined to cast his lot among 
the growing population of that region, and strengthen with their 
strength. He accordingly selected Henry county, in the northwestern 
part of Ghio as his future home, and at once commenced the prac- 
tice of medicine. The cholera was wgingat the time ; the maimers 
of the newvdoctor were popular ; his success in the treatment of dis- 
ease secured reputation, and reputation soon brought large pecuniary 
rewards. As yeai-s rolled on, early investments in land, also began 
to make profitable returns, and enable him to gradually withdraw 
from the active duties of his profession. Peculiar circumstances 
converted him, for a short time, into a merchant, and in this career 
he exhibited the sjime traits of energy which h.ave marked his course 
tlmnigh life. Having advanced money for business purposes to a 
friend, the latter eventually found himself on the eve of failure, and, 
to protect his generous creditor, transferred to him the entire stock 
of his store. The physician took charge of the establishment, de- 
voteil himself pei-sistently to his new duties, aud in less than eigh- 
teen months the results of his successful nianagement were, that he 
•J 11 



ROB ERTKINGSTON SCOTT. 3 

riot only pnid up tlie entire indebteilness of his friend, but iiiadu 
.several thousand dollars, aTid returned a larger stock than that with 
which he liad commenced the business. 

One possessed of such qualifications as these, in a thriving coni- 
nuinitv where brains and enterprise were the test of true manhood, 
could not but achieve popularity and influence. Accordingly, on 
the breaking out of the war in 1861, Gov. Dennison of Ohio, ten- 
dered to Dr. Scott a Major's commission, with itistructions to organ- 
ize the now famous Sixty-Eighth regiment of Ohio Volunteers. It 
was composed of the yeomanry of the country, the sons of farmers 
and mechanics, and in forty days after receiving the appointment, 
he had recruited 984 men, and marched them from the camp of ren- 
dezvous to Camp Chase. On the 29th of November, 1861, he was 
promoted to the Lieutenancy of the regiment. On the 8th of Feb- 
ruary, the command moved to the front and took part in the reduc- 
tion of Fort Donelson, at that time regarded as one of the strong- 
holds of the Confederacy in the West. His brigade commander was 
Gen. Thayer, the present United States Senator from Nebraska. 
The army, under command of Gen. Grant, now moved to Pitts- 
burgh Landing, where the Sixty-Eighth participated in the great 
two days' battle that has become a part of the history of the country. 
In this fight Col. Scott had his horse shot under him. The siege of 
Corinth followed, and the command then marched to Bolivar, Ten- 
nessee, where it remained during the summer of 1862. In July of 
that year, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel, and the efficien- 
cy with which he managed his regiment so inspired the confidence 
of Gen. Ross, his Division commander, that, although the youngest 
Colonel of the Division, on the 3d of October he was assigned to a 
Brigade, and directed to join Gen. Hurlbut, whose Division had been 
ordered to intercept tlie retreating army of Gen. Price after his de- 
feat at Corinth. In this capacity he took part in the battle of 
Hatchie river with Gen. Price's ai-my, and sul>sequently received 
honorable mention, for gallant conduct, in General Orders. Tlie 
importance attached to this battle will be the better understood when 



it i> known tliiit a i>nrlii-i|>;>tioM iu it, inmlo ISriijiulii'MU'niM'als Ovd 
i>r 1 1(0 iviiulnr !<rnn. jiiul IhirllnU of volunloi-i-s, Major-OiMiorals. 
Tlio soloi'tion ot' Vol. 8oott to llu> jiost of Krijjmlo ooimiiaiulor was . 
a luarkotl oomplimont to the militarv skill ami adn»inistrativo al>iii- 
tv displavoii In him in tlio nianiiiivniont of trooivs. 

Tl»o arniv hoinu ix-oiyani/inl, tlio SixtvKiiilnh ivijiniont luvaino 
a part oi' tlio Sovoutoonth oorps, thon nndor llu> roinniaiul of Clon- 
oral MoPluM-son, anil was att^u-lunl to tlioTliiixl Division i-onunandiHl 
l>v tJon. .lolui A. Logan. Ti»o niilit,>>rv liistorv of Ool. Soott, thoiv- 
foiv, is l>nt a roi>otition i^i' tho liistorv of tliatfanions oorjvs. llo par- 
tioipatinl in thobitllos of Vovl lliulson, lia\n\ond, Jackson. Cham- 
pion Hills. Uii: l?hu-k. antl tinally tho invostmontof Vioksbni^. Tho 
Sixty -l\ij;hth boing ono of tho tij"st roginionts in position in front of 
Kort Hill, tho stivnghoUl on tho main ivad from .Taokson to Vioks 
hnrg. 

t>i\ tho tovminatioi\ of tho siogi\ Ool. Soott was phuvil in ooni- 
niand of tho SoovmuI Urigado. and, with tho Sovontoonth oorjKs. join- 
ihI tho ann\ of (.vononil Shorman at Rig Shanty, north >>f tho Kon- 
nosaw mountain, during tho oponU ions against thoOonfodoi-!\to Cion. 
.Kvsoph K. .lohnston. Fn>n> that period tho Rrigjulo took a oonspicu- 
o\is and honorable part in all tho ovonts which transpiiwl. During 
tho invi\stmont of Atlanta, on tho :2:id of July, iSOi, when the loft 
tiank of the V\>vleral army was surpristxi by the dash of Gen. Hood, 
t.\>l. S(.\>tt W!»s taken prisoner, within a few rvuls, and within a few 
minutes of the time when Cion. Morhei-son was killed, and with 
other otlKvi-s, carried tv>w-.snls Macon, (.itVM-gia. An event iU'eurnnl 
on tho way thither, which shows tho dotormiuoil chaMcter of tho 
nmn. Tho prisoi\ers wow iu the onlinary Ih«, or fjvight ears, un- 
der the guanl of a ivrtion v>f the Fifty -Fourth Virginia regiment. 
The (.\>lonel was sitting in the dix^rway with his feet h.inging out, 
and jt ronfiHlorate soldier by his side. (.Observing that the latter w as 
jnolinoil to sUh>i\ he ipiietly slipjHHl the cap fnun the gun, and at a 
lavorablo op|H>rtnnity jumivd fivm tho car, wiling down an em 
l^nkment sixtivn v>r oightivu tVvt, ho lay half stunnoil for a time, 
•211) 



BOfiKRT KINGSTON HOOTT. 5 

bnt on rccoveririf^, inovwJ rapidly in tlie direction of the Ocmul^'e*^ 
river. I'or Bcven days }ie followed the cf^iirKe of thifl river, in the 
direction of the Federal lines, living chiefly, meanwhile, on three 
army IdHciiit. For three days he was j^urHued by men and dogs; 
finally, eluding thcHc, he came suddenly, at the angle of a roa^l, up- 
on a citiy.en. Conversation ensued, which resulted in his being 
furnished with food, clothing suitable for a disguise, and a coniforfc- 
able night's rest. The next morning he resumed his journey up the 
i-iver, and while traveling along the bank, well nigh beyond the 
reach of danger, he encountered a squad of Confederate soldier-j 
guarding a ferry, by whom liis disguise was penetrated. He was 
niHiched to the head-quarters of Gen. Cranberry, commanding the 
neighboring post, tlicnce to Forsyth, Ga., and finally to Charleston, 
S. C. From tlie latter jdace, he waa exchanged, with some one hun- 
dred and fifty others, on the 24th of September, 1804. He imme- 
diately returned to Atlanta, and resumed the command of his Brig- 
ade, preferring to share the toils and honors of the field to the enjoy- 
ment of the " leave of absence " then tendered to all released prisoners. 
Col. Scott, accordingly, accompanied Gen. Sherman in his great 
" march to the sea," and only accepted leave of absence on arriving 
at Savannah. The movements of Gen. Sherman through South 
Carolina were so rajiid that Col. Scott did not rejoin his Brigade un- 
til it arrived at Goldsboro, N. C. From that point the command 
moved to Raleigh, where the news was received of the capitulation 
of the Confederate army under Gen. Josej^h E. Johnston. After 
the great military review at \yashington, in May, 180.5, this Brig- 
"ade was ordered to Louisville, Ky., and there on the 10th of July, 
180.5, mustered out of service. The officers of the Sixty-Eighth took 
occasion on that day to present to their old chief, (who had been offi- 
cially made a Brigadier-General on the 12th of .January, 180.5, though 
serving as such during the most of the i>eriod of his Colonelcy,) a 
handsome gold watch. After an affectionate farewell from his men. 
Gen. Scott, in obedience to instructions, repaired to his home in Na- 
poleon, Henry county, Ohio, tliere to await further oivkrs. In f ho 
217 



6 ROliEKT KINGSTON SCOTT. 

rulKiwiiig month of December, lie was ordered to report to Gen. 
Howard for duty; and on the 2d of January, 1866, received from 
tliat officer instructions to relieve Gen. Kufus Saxton, then Assistant 
Commissioner of the Fi-ocdman's Bureau in South Carolina. Previous 
to his assignment to duty in that State, he was made a brevet Major- 
Gencral, for general good conduct as an officer. He arrived in 
Charleston, and took charge of the Bureau on the 19th of the month, 
bu tunder cii-cumstances which required the exercise of the rarest 
tact and soundest judgment. He was informed that he had under- 
taken a task in endeavoring to bring order out of chaos, which it was 
not in human power to accomplish. The situation was indeed dis- 
heartening. Abuses of various kinds existed ; the whites were re- 
duced to poverty, and Charleston was thronged with Freedmen, who, 
having been furnished with free transpoilation, had made their way 
to the city as if it were an Eldorado, in which they were to be sup- 
ported by the General Government. General Scott at once employed 
two steamers to remove this surplus po])nlation, and enable them to 
return to the homes they had left on the coast. The privilege of free 
transportation was checked, and a system of labor organized which, 
it was believed, would do equal and exact justice between the em- 
ployei"sand employed. For a long time, however, the adjustment of 
difficulties between the two classes seemed almost impossible. The 
old plantei-s could not readily adapt themselves to the new situation, 
while the Freedmen often failed to comprehend the obligations of 
a contract ; nevertheless, these efforts were so far successful in satis- 
fying both races that, in June, 1S66, when an order came mustering 
General Scott out of service, (he being absent at the time,) a num- 
ber of the citizens of Charleston telegraphed the President to rescind 
the order ; whicli was promptly done, and in two houi-s after the re- 
turn of General Scott, he received a further order suspending the 
muster-out until the first of the following December. 

When that time arrived, the same gentlemen telegraphed the Pres- 
ident, asking the further suspension of the order, which was then 
entirely revoked, leaving him with hisratdc, the only Brigadier-Gen- 
218 



ROBERT KINGSTON SCOTT. 7 

eral of the volunteer army of the United States not mustered out 
of service. But the organization of the labor system, was not the 
least of the evils with which General Scott had to contend. Almost 
the entire population, from the seaboard to the mountains, was in a 
tate of destitution. The crop of 1865 was short ; provisions were 
-acting, and, but for the assistance of the General Government, 
there would not have been enough of corn or meat to prevent starv- 
ation. Similar destitution prevailed during the year 1866. The 
high price of cotton having induced planters to devote their atten- 
tion chiefly to the culture of the staple, without regard to the neces- 
saries of life. The crop, however, was destroyed by the caterpillar, 
and the price having depreciated, the result scarcely repaid the cost 
of production. In 1867 and '68, therefore, even greater destitution 
prevailed than before, and it was then that the extremities to which 
the people were reduced, led General Scott to visit Washington and 
secure the sanction of the President to a loan of three hundred 
thousand dollars from the appropriation for the support of Freedmen 
to the people of the State at large. He therefore became the me- 
dium for advancing a large amount of provisions to the planters ; 
the relief was timely, and afforded them the means of producino- a 
sufficient crop for the succeeding year, and thus laying the founda- 
tion of permanent prosperity. He likewise exerted his influence in 
behalf of schools, and, under his administration, a large number of 
school edifices were erected, and colored children taught. 

In March, 1868, General Scott received from the Eepublican party 
of the State, the nomination for Governor. He formally declined 
the honor ; but, it being pressed by his friends, he was elected for 
two years by a majority of 46,000. In 1870, he was unanimously 
renominated, and after one of the most exciting political compaigns 
ever known in South Carolina, was triumphantly elected to fill the 
office for two years more, by a majoiity of 34,000 votes. 

He entered upon the duties of the position under circumstances 
which required the exercise of profound judgment, patience, and 
moral courage. The majority of the white people of the State, led 
219 



S ROBERT KINOSTONSOOTT. 

by tlicir old and experienced political leaders, were not only opposed 
to him in polities, but were untutored concerning their duties as cit- 
izens of a reconstructed State, and no little prejudice— bitter and 
personal — embarrassed every step of his way, creating obstacles 
-n-hich made it extremely difficult to secure the proper officers to fill 
fhe various positions intended to co-operate with the Executive, in 
the administration of the affiiirs of the State. Gradually, however, 
lie succeeded in establishing a policy, and notwithstanding many 
di-awbacks, the wisdom of that policy is recognized by many of the 
best citizens of South Carolina. The credit of the State has been 
improved ; public institutions have been fostered ; public and pri- 
vate enterprises encouraged, peace assured, and a new foundation 
laid for the development of a greater career thanSoutii Cai-olinayet 
has known. A firm believer in the spirit of the age, represented by 
the Fourteenth and Fifteentli amendments to the organic law, Gov. 
Scott has sought to enforce the civil and political rights of all men, 
without respect to race, color, or previous condition, and, if thus far 
he has failed successfully to solve the greatest political problem of 
the hour, the failure is due rather to the inefficiency of the instru- 
ments employed than to any weakness of his cause. 

He has a commanding person, that would be noticeable in any 
throng, being six feet two inches in height, straight as an arrow, and 
every way marked with the spirit of self-reliance, which conquers 
difficulty. Brown hair, grey eyes, and abroad forehead, with over- 
lianging brow, and lines sharply drawn around the mouth, reveal 
his Scotch ancestry, wliile his frank, Western manner, suggestive 
conversation, and progressive ideas, point him out as an unmistaka- 
ble American. 

He is not a fluent speaker in public, but addresses liimself always 
to the subject iu hand, and wins, by connnon sense and hard facts, 
the victories which others frequently fail to accomplish with the mere 
graces of rhetoric. 

As a man, Eobcrt K. Scott has made that mark in life wliicli nnisl 
eummand res])ecl fruiii all who admire energy of iiur])ose, success 
220 



ROBERT KINGSTON SCOTT. 9 

fully employed. As a soldier his best tribute is written on the silver 
plate which adorns tlie flag staft'of the Brigade so long commanded 
by him, and which record the names of Fort Donelsoii, Shiloh, the 
siege of Corintii, Bolivar, Jnka, Corinth 2d, Thompson's Hill, Ray- 
mond, Jackson, Champion Hill, Fort Hill, Vicksburg, Fort Beaii- 
regai-d, Mmm. Eaid, Bogachita, Meridian Raid, Big Shanty, Bush 
Mountain, Kennesaw, Nickyack, Siege of Atlanta, Atlanta July 2 1st, 
22d, and 28th, Jonesboro, Lovejoy, Milledgeville, Savannah, Poco- 
taligo, Orangeburg, Charleston, Columbia and Bentonville. 
221 




DEWITT CLINTON LITTLEJOHN. 

,, BY S. WATKINS TUTTLE. 

• S an example of that peculiarly American type of character 
which is popularly denominated Yanlcee, expressmg by that 
term all which a man can possess of indomitable energy, 
perseverance and determination, the career of Dewitt C. Littlejohn 
affords to the rising generation material for the most profound study 
and contemplation. 

The trite aphorism concerning " self made men," which earned so 
much cheap applause in the callow days of the Eepublic, has become 
such an absolute rule with all those who have made themselves iilus- 
trious in our land, that it has no significance in its old acceptation. 
The truly self-made man is he who looks further into the future 
than do those about him, and intuitively discerning a public need or 
a great opportunity, makes that opportunity his own, and improves it 
to the utmost; overcoming all obstacles, dismayed by no difficulties, 
and heeding no allurements which would draw him from bis course. 
Life is too short for even the ablest man to waste himself upon a 
number of pursuits : success lies in the concentration of power upon 
one object, and steady perseverance in achieving it. To these quali- 
ties must be added the immense moral force which a man gains in 
being thoroughly imbued with the spirit of his labor; in other 
words, by believing in his own cause. 

Before entering upon the narrative of Mr. Littlejohn's life, we 
would call the attention of the reader to the fact, illustrative of 
these remarks, that from his first entry into business, and in all the 
various positions of honor end responsibility to which he has been 
chosen, he has been identified with one great interest, viz: the western 
223 



i mowrrr (.-union litilejomn 

c"i\nvin<j; tnulo ; ami to an tipparout coincidonco in his cuivcr, that 
tho tboal ju>int of all his hnsinoss ontorprisos lias been tho City of 
Oswojjo, insoiiuMiislniH'Os whoix' iu> intention to that oflVct is evident. 

As resulting lVon> his aente peiveption of thegij^antie interests in- 
volved ill the business in which ho was so actively ongag^nl, Jlr. Lit- 
tlejuhn is, and has l>wn for yeni-s, the espoeial ehanii>ion of tho 
Niaj;ara 8hip Canal : so that it would almost seem as if tlie mantle 
of his illustrious prototype deseended to him with his name, that he 
might add tho erowniug work to the system whieh the former 
inaugurateil. 

Dt^wilt Clinton Littlejohn was born in tho town of Bridgewater, 
Oneida County, New York, iu tho yojxr 1S18. His youth, as is 
gi'nerally the case, was uneventful, lie tii-st reecived such instruc- 
tion as could be obtained in the very ordinary schools whieh the 
eovmtry aflorded in thosedap. and afterwards at tended several terms 
at an aeadeuiy, whoix^ he pui-siiod his studies with so much industry 
that he was eonsideivd titted to enter an advanced class in college. 
It had been his intention to obtain a collegiate cdueatiou, but at this 
juneluiv some trivial ciixnimstanee changed his intention, and he 
determined 1 1 engage in tueix-antile pursuits. 

At tho ag' of twenty-one Mr. Littlejohn left his home for the 
tlourishir.g vilhigo of Oswego, wheiv ho formed a business partner- 
ship with the Hon. Uenry Fitzhugh, then, and until his death, one 
o( the most estimable citizens of that place. Young Littlejohn took 
with him into the (arm little money capitnl ; but he had integrity, 
enei-g\-, a clear head, and givat business capacity, qualities which 
never yet failevl to tell to their possessor's advantiigi\ At this time 
the givat west was just Ivginning to assume importance as a produc- 
ing section; and Oswego, from its position on Lake Ontario, bid lair 
to boanue the principal cntitpot for its v;ist commeive. Mr. Fitz- 
hugh and his \\ning jvvrtner embarked acti\-ely in what was then 
known as the lake tnide. and soon took a high rank among the com- 
meri'ial houses o( the eountrv. 

•J-24 



DEWITr r-UNTOV MTTLE-JOnN. 3 

In his new position, Mr. Littlcjohn very soon began to make him- 
self knov/n, and his influence felt among his fellow citizens. The 
ardor which he displayed in his commercial pursuits, redounded 
greatly to the benefit of his adopted home; and so closely were the 
interests of the place and the business interwoven, that faithful at- 
tention to the one, involved and implied fidelity to the other. So 
it came about, that while yet comparatively a stranger, he was cho- 
sen one of the trustees of Oswego Village. 

This was Mr. Littlejohn's first entrance into political life — where 
he has since gained so much honor and renown. He accepted the 
position, as he hims(;lf says, not from any desire for notoriety, which 
never had any charms for him, but with that spirit in which a man 
worthy of trust, always accepts a duty which he is called upon to 
perform. Although quite young, he was an able debater, and never 
took a position without first entrenching himself with a battery of 
arguments to define and defend his opinions. In the direst extremity 
he will never confess a defeat, but fights for his cause with his whole 
heart and soul. These qualities soon gained him the leadership in 
his county, — a position he has ever since retained. 

At this time the whole state was seething with political excite- 
ment. A new birth was evidently at hand, but no man could foresee 
the result. " Whigs " and " Democrats," " Barn Burners," " Hunk- 
ers," " Free Soilers," " Silver Greys," " Woolley Heads," and a 
score of other organizations existed, in one or other of which a man 
could trim to suit the shifting wind of popularity. But Mr. Little- 
john was never the man to keep his eye on the weather cock. He 
planted himself squarely on the Anti-slavery platform, then bitterly 
unpopular, without any '• ifs" or "ands" or " buts"; and until the 
bloody end of the slave power he never wavered or hesitated, but 
with all the energj-of his character, and all the force of his eloquence 
and logic, he battled with it till it was overthrown. 

After the widening of the Erie canal under the Constitution of 
1846, the commercial interests of Oswego demanded a like enlarge- 
225 



4 DKWITI CLINTON I-irrLlMOHN. 

mcnt of the Oswego canal. The business of that place had mean- 
while become inimenst^, anil it was seriously crippled by lack of 
facility in transportation to tide water ; and iu 1Sj3 Mr. Littlejohn 
was chosen to the Legislature for thcpiup.se of effecting the desired 
result. 

The ardor with which he entered upon his allotted duty, and his 
eminent fitness for the task, were acknowledged and recognized in his 
appointment by the Speaker as a member of the Special Committee 
to prepare an amendment to the Constitution, authorizing the en- 
largement of the tributary canals. 

The proposed amendment having been ratified by the people of 
the State, Mr. Littlejohn was returned to the Assembly by his con- 
stituency in 1854, to supemse the legislation neccessaryto carry 
its provisions into effect. During this session he held the position 
of Chairman of the Canal Committee. 

Of the Legislature of 1855 Mr. Littlejohn was also a member ; and 
the high position which he had attained in the politics of the State, 
caused him to l>e nominated and elected Speaker of the House. The 
arduous and delicate duties which now devolved upon him were dis- 
charpcc'd with rare skill and discrimination. The readiness of thought 
and promptness of decision which he had cultivated in business, en- 
abled him to dispose readily of the vexatious questions continually 
arising. During this session the initiatory skirmish of the great 
struggle between slaveiy and freedom took place, on the occasion of 
the election of United States Senator. Governor Seward was the 
chosen standard bearer of the Anti-slavery party, and Mr. Little- 
john threw himself into the contest with an ardor and energy which 
contributed iu a very great degree to the result. At all events the 
responsibility of this audacious success of Anti-slaveiy sentiments 
was charged upon Mr. Littlejohn, and his enemies used every effort 
in their power to crush the rising statesman. But he was not at all 
the sort of a man to be crushed. He returned home at the close of 
the session, and accep'ed the nomination of his party for Mayor of 
226 



DEWITT CLINTON LITTLEJOHN. fi 

the new City of Oswego. After a canvass of unexampled bitterness 
and personal vituperation, he was triumphantly elected. 

la the years 1857, '59, '60 and '61 Mr. Littlejohu was again elec- 
ted to the Legislature, and at each of these sessions was chosen 
Speaker. As a presiding officer he has few superiors. His know- 
ledge of parliamentary law is extensive and profound ; and his 
ui'banity and impartiality win the confidence and suj^i^ort even of 
political opponents. 

In the Presidential campaign of 1860 he took an active part in 
support of the Eepublican candidates : and as a recognition of his 
very valuable services, was joffered by President Lincoln the position 
of Consul of the United States at Liverpool. As the war of the 
Rebellion had just broken out, and the future of the Republic was 
fraught with danger, he declined the proffered honor, preferring to 
remain in his own country, where his services might be needed. 

The following year, on the call of the President for six hundred 
thousand troops, Mr. Littlejohn was solicited by the War Committee 
of Oswego County to accept the Colonelcy of one of the new regi- 
ments. He did so, and in ten days time recruited and put into the 
field the 110th Regiment. 

With his command Col. Littlejohn went to sea as a part of the 
famous expedition of Gen. Banks to New Orleans. The voyage was 
an unusually stormy one, and for several days many vessels of the 
fleet were in extreme danger of shipwreck. The personal care and 
sleepless devotion of Col. Littlejohn alone preserved a number of 
them from being lost. The regiment went into camp at Cairolton, 
near New Orleans, and during the campaign of General Banks, did 
good service at Port Hudson, and at various points in the Depart- 
ment of the Gulf, and saw some hard fighting. It is due to their 
commander to say, that in all the privations incident to military life, 
he shared the lot of his private soldiers, and was unwearied in his 
attention to the comfort and welfare of his men. 

WhUe on duty with his regiment, in the fall of 1862, Mr. Little- 
227 



6 DEWITT CLiNTON LlTIXF-JOnN. 

John was elected by his constituents of Oswego county a member of 
the 38th Congress. During the following winter his health, under 
the combined influence of exposure in camp, and the ennervating 
climate, foiled him entirely. For this reason, and there being also a 
question of his eligibility to Congress, while in the anny, he resigned 
his commission about the 1st of March, 1863, and on the 4th of that 
month took his seat at the organization of Congress. But the 
disease which had fastened upon his system during his sojom-n in the 
south, now laid him low, and for many months his condition was 
critical : a vigorous constitution triumphed, however, and at the 
December meeting of Congress he had so far recovered as to be able 
to resume his seat and take part in its deliberations. 

Mr. Littlejohn's Congressional career was particularly honorable 
and active. Still true to the interests of commerce and the lake 
trade, he introduced and earned through Congress, in face of strong 
opposition, a bill which appropriated $300,000 to the preservation of 
the harbors of our great lakes. Ilis committee duties were various 
and c xceedingly arduous. He was Chau-man of the Committee on 
Rules ; a member of that on Pensions ; also on Roads and Canals, 
and a prominent and working member of the Committee on Ways 
and Means. On all political subjects, and in support of all projects 
to sustain the Government in its trying hour, Mr. Littlejohn was 
outspoken and energetic. His readiness in debate and familiarity 
\vith parliamentary law, rendered unnecessary in his case, that pro- 
bation which a new member must usually undergo, and he at once 
took an influential position in affairs of state. 

In his comprehensive scheme for the advancement of our internal 
commerce, Mr. Littlejohn has always considered, as of the first im- 
portance, the construction of a Ship Canal around Niagara Falls, 
and he has labored indefatigably for years to accomplish that object. 
The opposition which he has encoimtered would have discouraged 
most men, but he seems to thrive under it. Dming the last session 
of his Congressional term ho introduced a bill into Congress to effect 
228 



DEWITT CLINTON LITTLEJOHN. 7 

this measure, and succeeded by his personal efforts in carryin- it 
through the House. It failed in the Senate, however, most probrWy 
from want of time. 

In the fall of that year, Mr. Littlejohn was again elected to repre- 
sent his district in the State Assembly for the session of 1866 In 
that body he was Chairman of the Committee on Commerce and 
Navigation ; second on the Canal Committee, and was also chosen 
Speaker pro fem. On account of the sickness and consequent absence 
of the Speaker from his post, Mr. Littlejohn discharged the duties 
of that office during nearly the entire term. Very early in the 
session he introduced a bill chartering a company to construct the 
Niagara Ship Canal. A majority of the people of the State have 
always been opposed to this measm-e, from a fear that it would draw 
traffic and revenue from the Erie Canal. It was therefore a remark- 
able triumph for Mr. Littlejohn, as well as a practical tribute to his 
skill as a legislator, that he succeeded in securing the passage of his 
biU in the face of the most determined opposition, wldch he fou<^ht 
single handed, while his progress was contested inch by inch. °In 
the Senate, however, certain, conditions were attached to the bill 
which caused its projectors to abandon their design. 

During this session the writer being in professional attendance 
upon the Legislature, had daily opportunities of studying Mr. Little- 
john's character and mental qualities What struck him as one of 
his strongest characteristics, was his intense earnestness in all he 
undertakes. There seems not to be the remotest trace of levity or 
;nonsense about him. He never talks for the sake of talking, but 
when he takes a position on a measure, he means business. Another 
strong trait is his power of analysis, and of saying a great deal in 
a few words. As a legislator his industry is untiring, and his sagaci- 
ty something marvelous. 

^ In the year 1865 a project was formed by a number of prominent 
Itailroad men and capitaHsts, to construct a Kaihoad from New York 
C.ty, in as nearly a direct line as possible, through the interior of 



229 



e DEWirr CLLNXON Liri'LliJOHN. 

the State to Lake Ontario, making its northern terminus at Oswego. 
A ghxnco at the map of New York State will show that such a road 
would travcree some of the richest portions of its territory, in a sec- 
tion quiet undeveloped by Eailroad facilities. It would also inter- 
sect and cross the N. Y. Central K. R. at Oneida ; thus forming the 
hypothenuse of a triangle, of which Albany is the apex ; and effect- 
ing a saving of distance from New York to the point of intersection, 
of some fifty miles. 

A company to construct the " New York and Oswego Midland 
R. R.," over this route, was organized in that year under the General 
Railroad law, and was granted especial facilities by legislative enact- 
ments in 1S66 and '67. As the best man for the place, Mr. Little- 
john was elected President of the Company, and entered with great 
spirit into the undertaking. 

Having planned and perfected the financial system which he con- 
sidered best calculated to render the enterprise a success, he made a 
thorough canvass of the various localities through which the line was 
to pass. His skill in influencing men, and obtaining their support, 
was never so wonderfully illustrated, ^n extraordinary amount of 
enthusiasm was aroused among the inhabitants along the proposed 
route, and some six million dollars were subscribed by them to the 
)»roject. No aid has ever been received from the State by this 
road. Although projected and begun at a time of great financial 
depression, and encountering those periods of stringency in the money 
market, which have caused the ruin of so many schemes since the 
close of our late war, the Midland Railroad has steadily advanced 
under its able and efficient management, and mile after mile of its 
line has been completed and run, until it stands to-day a great 
leality, an accomplished fact, and a splendid monument to the 
energy, perseverance and resolution of its foimders. 

We believe the circumstances attending the construction of this 
road to be without a parallel in the history of similar enterprises ; 
and that we are not extravagant in asserting, that without subsides 
230 



DEWrrT CIJNTON LITIXEJOHN 9 

from the State, no man but Dewitt C. Littlejohn could have made 
the project a success. In a couple of years more the enth-e line will 
be finished and in operation, forming another grand highway for 
western traffic to the metropolis. 

Mr. Littlejohn was again chosen a member of the Legislature for 
1867, when he was Chairman of the Canal Committee, and a member 
of that on Kailroads. Again a member in 1870, and serving on the 
Committees of Ways and Means, Railroads, and Grievances, three 
of the hardest worked Committees in the House. Yet Mr. Little- 
john most conscientiously performs the duties assigned him, and is 
seldom absent from their deliberations. 

At the present time Mr. Littlejohn is a member of the Legislature 
of 1871, and consequently is semng for his eleventh legislative term, 
during five of which he was Speaker, and as the newspapers bear 
daily evidence, is one of the most untiring and watchful of the 
minority. 

In person Mr. Littlejohn is tall, thin and angular; with a careless, 
rapid gait, as of a man who thinks not so much of the order of his 
going, as to go at once. His head is long, and adorned with very 
black hair and whiskers, now sprinkled with grey. His eyes are 
black and piercing, and move incessantly with a quick, nervous 
motion. His under jaw is firm and square, giving evidence of great 
resolution and firmness. 

The reader will have noticed that the marked successes of Mr. 
Littlejohn's life have been in no degree owing to accidental circum- 
stances, but are rather the result of remarkable natural abilities and 
persistent efibrt. Endowed by nature with great powers of both body 
and mind, he has wrought out his present high position among men. 
Evidently from a long lived ancestry, he has inherited the elements 
of great longevity, and will wear out as it were by inches ; and con- 
stantly improving with age, will be at the meridian of hfe at a period 
when most others become exhausted. He has great muscular 
strength and nervous energy, with a large brain, great clearness of 
231 



10 DEwrrr cunion liitlejohn. 

mind, un d an ixccllout temperament, and ihcKC, combined with his 
large combativencss and strong will, enable him to thi-ow great inten- 
sity and powir into whatcTcr ho undertakes, and to exercise a com- 
manding influence among men. He has also great breadth of 
intellect, and takes a comprehensive view of all subjects, and finds 
his true field in carrying forward great enterprises rather than in the 
more restricted channels of commerce and financial detail. Though 
having great strength and mental independence of character, he is 
by nature extremely modest, and his whole life has been marked by 
freedom fi om pretension. Had he been differently constituted in this 
respect, he would undoubtedly have attained still greater prominence. 
He has always acted upon the principle that " the position should 
seek the m;m, not the man the position," and has often refused to 
assume im])ortant responsibilities which have been urged upon him. 
This characteristic, though well known to his friends, is less under- 
stood by the general public, as when he has determined upon a 
course, the strength of his will and the intense energy of his nature 
cause him to override all obstacles, giving the appearance of great 
eelf-trus* and confidence. "Whilo his combativeness and powers of 
resistance are veiy great, he is a stranger to revenge, or a desire to 
strike the fallen, being satisfied with such reparation as answers the 
ends of justice. 

Owing to this peculiarity of his organization, opposition but 
strengthens him, and it is only in debate and when ho has great 
obstacles to contend with, that his extraordinaiy power becomes fully 
manifest. Though the clearness of his perception and his strength 
of intellect makes his judgment almost unerring, he is, notwithstand- 
ing his strong will, always disposed to listen to advice, and to regard 
with much dcferenci=! the opinions of others. 

While possessing great enterprise as manifested by his life, he 
shows marked caution before embarking in any undertaking ; but 
when, after full deliberation, he has determined upon his course, he 
follows it with unyielding persistency, and is bound to succeed. 
232 



DEW ITT CLINTON LITTLE JOHN. n 

Mr. Littlejohn has great kindness of feeling, and is heartily 
interested in whatever is calculated to benefit his fellow men ; ha^ 
strong domestic feeling, and is greatly attached to home and family. 
He is a warm, hearty friend, and regards with the utmost fidelity 
the obligations which friendship imposes. Has a high sense of 
honor, and is scrupulously conscientious in his business relations — 
indeed, has no greater ambition or pride of character than to be 
known of all men, as one " whose word is his bond," and who never 
deviates from the principles of fairness, and of even and exact 
justice. 

Owing to the strength and endurance of his organization, Mr. 
Littlejohn is as yet comparatively a young man. The positions of 
trust and responsibility which he has aheady lield, and the promi- 
nence he has attained ; his manly integrity and honor ; the purity 
of his life, and the confidence he inspires ; his great force, persistency 
and earnestness ; his intense energy and remarl^able power ; the 
clearness of his perceptions, and strength of his mind, entitle him to 
a position among men, such as few in any age achieve. 
233 




A-^yj, /^^.^^^ 



1 



WILLIAM B. CLERKE. 



'HERE is not, probably, any city in the -world possessed of 
*^S| greater facilities for making a fortune than the City of 
^ '^ New York, and we doubt if there is any place on earth 
where it is more difficult to amass wealth. Contradictory as this 
may appear, it is nevertheless a truism whose demonstration we wit- 
ness daily. And the obstacles which beset the paths of bo many 
opportunities arise from that fierce and feverish competition among 
business men, which forms the most striking characteristic of all 
great centers of population, and which is more apparent in New 
York than in any other civilized city. 

This holds good in all descriptions of business; but more practi- 
cally in stock-brokerage and banking. There is no calling in life 
more fascinating, and none more dangerous than that of finance. 
Where one man succeeds, one thousand fail, and if the personal his- 
tories of the men who have frequented Wall Street for years could 
be told, the narrative would form a record of ruin to the many, 
which no romance could equal. The fact is, that a man, to succeed 
in Wall Street, must possess a pecuUar order of genius ; he must 
be a man of more than ordinary abilities; he must, indeed, possess 
talents of a higher order than can be found in the average man. 
Not greater courage is required to make a hero of a soldier, than is 
required to speculate in stocks. And yet there must be no rash- 
ness; he must be daring, and yet prudent; his knowledge of thu 
market must be perfect, and he must be, to some extent, prescient 
of the future. A combination of qualities, many seemingly opi)Osc(l 
235 



2 W1LL1A.U b. CLKUlifc;. 

to cacli Other, and incapable of harmonizing, is requiroJ in any man 
wliowoul.l win a foruine in tho daily struggles between the "bulls" 
and " l)cars " of tlie Stock Exchange. 

The sketch which we shall proceed to give is that of a man whose 
success deuioustrates his possession of all the qualities to which we 
have alluded. William B. Gierke was bora in tho City of New 
York in 1829, and is consequently still a young man. His father is 
the Hon. Thos. W. Gierke, a native of Ireland, who came to the 
United States at an early age and settled in New York, where he 
attained to considerable eminence as a lawyer, and made reputation 
as the author of several valuable works on legal subjects, including 
a very full digest of the New York State Keport. In 18!33 he was 
elected a Justice of the Supreme Gourt of the State, which position 
he held for nearly twenty years, winning the confidence and respect 
of tho public and of the bar, by his upright and impartial couri.e on 
the Bench. 

William B. Gierke received a good education, in the city of his 
birth, and, after leaving school, entered the office of his father for 
the purpose of studying the profession of the law. But to the 
young man the dry and musty records had few attractions, and it 
was not long before himself and his fiither agreed together that 
whatever he might become, the legal profession was not intended for 
him; accordingly ho threw aside his law books and entei'ed Wall 
Street, in the capacity of clerk in the banking house of J. S. Gar- 
pender & Co., where he remained for eight years, during which pe- 
riod of time he became fully initiated into all the mysteries of 
stock-brokerage and banking. As a subordinate, Mr. Gierke gave 
evidence of that shrewdness and business tact, which in after years 
he exhibited in his own behalf with marked success. His associ- 
ation, too, with the bankers and brokers of the city, had made him 
favorably known to them, and the excellent qualities he displayed 
as a clerk won for him an enviable reputation and many friends. 

In 1S30 Mr. Gierke resigned his position with Carp?nder &: Co., 
236 



WILLIAM B. CLERKE. 3 

and engaged in business on his own account, as a banker and bro- 
ker. Immediately after, he was unanimously elected a member of 
the New York Stock Exchange, an institution exceedingly powerful 
in the financial affairs of the country, and the members of which 
are usually very particular concerning those to whom they extend 
the right of association; the unanimity with which they elected Mr. 
Gierke to membership must, therefore, be regarded as a flattering 
evidence of the high character he bore in a community of capitahsts, 
whose aggregate wealth must reach almost fabulous figures. He 
began business with little or no capital, but he had eight years' ex- 
perience, keen judgment, a thorough knowledge of his business, 
and great resolution, with which to make up for the pecuniary defi- 
ciency. These formed the greater part of his capital, and they cer- 
tainly did their part well, for Mr. Gierke prospered steadily, skill- 
fully avoiding the treacherous dangers which crowd the path of the 
operators of Wall Street, and which have made hundreds of men, 
who arose in the morning wealthy, retire to bed at night bankrupt 
and penniless. 

From 1850 to the present day Mr. Gierke has caiTied on business 
on his own account, and he may to-day be justly called one of the 
few successful men of Wall Street. He has acquired a large fcir- 
tune, and has established his business on a firm and substantial basis. 
To do this was not an easy matter, as we have already said; to do it 
within twenty years, is something to be proud of; indeed, to do it at 
all is a demonstration of superior intellectual resources and business 
capacity. It would, of course, be impossible for us to enter into the 
particulars of the vast speculations in wliich Mr. Gierke has been 
engaged, or even to mention any single operation which added to 
his wealth; for if ever the mysteries of "margins," "puts" and 
"calls," were unfolded to us, it is still doubtful if we should under- 
stand them with sufficient clearness to make an intelligent narra- 
tive. 

It is noteworthy that in Mr. Gierke's career, of nearly a quarter 
237 



i W 1 I, L I A M B . C L E II K F, . 

of a century, he never was dtherwise tliau popular with his associ- 
ates in liusiness Ever since his connection with the New York 
Stock Exchange, he has been more or less identified with its legisla- 
tion, and in May, 1870, his election, by an almost unanimous vote, as 
President of that institution, was a flattering testimonial to his abili- 
ties, and to the high esteem in which he is held. This position is oc- 
cupied by Mr. Gierke at the present writing, and the complete satis- 
faction he has given all the members, by his dignified course, and 
skillful administration of its affairs, is the best proof of his capaci- 
ty, and of their wisdom in selecting him. The Stock Exchange, it 
must be borne in mind, consists of an association of about eleven 
hundred of the most respectable citizens of tlie City of New York, 
and numbers among its members some of the ablest business men in 
the world. It possesses property valued at one million of dollars, 
including the building in which business is transacted. Over this 
vast institution Mr. Gierke presides. 

While Mr. Gierke Las been acquiring reputation and fortune, he 
has not only interested himself in matters connected with his per- 
sonal business, but he has also devoted much of his time to chari- 
table deeds; "laying up treasures in heaven, which moths and rust 
do not consume." He has been for some years, and still is, con- 
nected with various charitable societies, for the improvement of the 
condition of the unfortunate, such as the " Gity Mission," and " The 
Sheltering Arms," of which he is a trustee. Besides spending much 
time and contributing largely in money to the work of these insti- 
tutions, Mr. Gierke has performed numerous deeds of benevolence, 
which he never speaks of, it is true, but which have gained him the 
undying gratitude of those whose sufferings he has alleviated, whose 
wants he has relieved, and of those whom he extended a helping hand 
to at the critical moment of then: business careers, when, but for his 
assistance, they would have been iiTetrievably ruined. Remember- 
ing his own struggles, when he began business, and knowing how 
diCQcult it is for men in Wall Street to escape the dangers which 
23S 



WILLTAJIB. CLERKE. 5 

beset them on all sides, Mr. Gierke can and docs sympatLize with 
the unfortunate, and he has always proved a true friend to the 
young and inexperienced men who enter the Street, never refusing, 
when asked, to give them judicious advice. 

Peisonally, Mr. Gierke is a gentleman of rather above the average 
height, and of a well-proportioned figure; he possesses a frank, open 
countenance, rendered somewhat French in its general cast, by rea- 
son of the style in which he wears his beard. His character as a 
man of honor and integrity is above reproach. During his long 
business career, not a word has ever been whispered against his hon- 
esty and fair dealing, not even in the way of slander. Very few men 
on Wall Street can say as much, for although it is unquestionably 
true that the sweeping charges which are occasionally made against 
them as a body are absurd and preposterous, it is rare that the in- 
dividual members of the Stack Exchange escape the libelous 
tongues of others. The chent of a stock-broker invests his money 
and loses it, and the chances are ten to one he believes his agent in 
some unexplainable way responsible for the loss he has sustained, and 
in many instances he will indulge in insinuations against his hones- 
ty. It has been Mr. Gierke's good fortune to conduct his delicate 
and intricate business for twenty-one years, without having even his 
motives impugned. 

In the social circle Mr. Gierke is also very popular. He is a gen- 
tleman of finished address and poUshed manners, and his conversa- 
tion is always pleasant and interesting. His career has been a strik- 
ing exemplification of what pluck and indomitable energy can ac- 
complish. If he is one of the fortunate few of Wall Street, it is 
because he is also one of the few gifted with requisite qualities for 
obtaining success. And we are confident that a man who has ac- 
quired fortune in as creditable a manner as he has acquired his, and 
whose business life has been as little open to censure as his has been, 
deserves, even as Mr. Gierke merits and obtains, the confidence and 
esteem of all to whom he is known. 
239 



BARTON n. JENKS. 

BY J. ALEXANDER PATTEN. 

* ||pIiE pen has no wortliier task than in recording tlie history of 
^^M American manufacturing enterprise. In tliese achievements 
•^ ^ man has shown liis grandest powers of genius and will, and 
accomplislied lasting beneilts for his race. The glory of even mar- 
tial victories grows pale in the luster of these triumphs of industry 
and skill. 

Barton H. Jenks, who is at the head of the great Bridesburg 
Manufacturing Works of Philadelphia, affords in his career a most 
striking illustration of energy and talent, as an inventor and manu- 
facturer. He was born in Philadelphia, September 18, 1826, and is 
a descendant of those whose names are prominently associated with 
the early manufactures of the United States. Ilis ftither was the 
late worthy and distinguished Alfred Jenks, and he is also a lineal 
descendant of the Hon. Joseph Jenks, governor of Rhode Island, 
who erected a forge in the seventeenth century. Alfred Jenks was 
the founder of the works now carried on by his son, and was a pupil 
and co-laborer for many years with the celebrated Samuel Slater, 
who erected the first cotton-mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. In 
1810, Mr. Jenks removed to Ilolmesburg, Pennsylvania. He took 
witii him drawings of every variety of cotton machinery, as far as 
it had then advanced in the line of improvement, and commenced 
its manufacture. He supplied the machinery for the first mill 
started in that portion of the State. During the war with England 
he greatly extended his business, and in 1819 or 1820, removed to 
Bridesburg, which is now a part of the city of Philadelphia. He con- 
veyed his old frame building from Holmesburg on rollers, which yet 
stands amid the more substantial and imposing structures beside 
241 



2 UA UTON 11 .IKNK8. 

it, a rovorcd inomoriiil of tlio \n\6t. Tlio ourlie'st dpiiKiiid lor woolen 
uuu'liiiiorv in IVnnsylvaniu was 8iii>])licil by Mr. .links, lie liir- 
nislicd 111! tlio iiiiicliiiuMv lor tlio lirst woolen mill eshililisluul in 
tlio Stato lit Consliolioekeii. in IS;U) he invented a power-loom 
for weavinj: elieeku. The introiluelioii of this loom at the Ivempton 
T\Iill, Manayunk, oeeasioned sueh an exeitement amont; the liaiid- 
woavoi'8 iiiul others opposod to laltor-savinj!; machinery that the 
presciieo of uii aniiod forco was necessary for the protection of the 
mill. 

Siiu-e the decease of Mr. Alfretl .leiiks, with a brief exeeiition, 
luid for a miniber of yeai-s jireviously, the business of the JJrides- 
bui-fj Works has been eondiieted by Mr. Barton II. Jeiiks. Under 
Ilia able direetiini asa ineehanicand business man the establishment 
lins acquired colossal extent and a world-wide reputation. In- 
genuity and enterprise are inborn to him, and the renown for both 
which was acquired by his ancestors is beiiijj; trreatly increased at 
his liaiuls. Ill lSt)3, iinding that the labors were overpowering 
him, ho formed a stock corporation styled the Bridesburg Manu- 
facturing Company, with a paid-up capital of one million of dol- 
lars. Mr. Jenks is the president. For a long period ho sought re- 
tirement, but at length returned to the active management of the 
business, in which he still remains. The Bridesburg Works consist 
of numerous buildings covering a largo area, and provide omj>loy- 
ment for about live hundred operatives. The machine-shop is a 
building three hundred and ninety-eight by thirty-two feet, and 
tliree stories in height, and all the other buildings are large. There 
are I'ourteen dilVerent departments in the Works, each under the 
charge of a competent superintendent, who controls assistant super- 
intendents and their separate squads. The stock of lumber, which 
has to lie in the seasoning room for perhaps a year requires im ex- 
penditure of seventy thousand dollars. Five steam-engines and 
eighty-six diftorent kinds of labor-saving machines are in constant 
use. All the machinery, and every other appointment, are as per 
feet us experience and money can make them. At a recent visit of 
•242 



BAETON H. JBNKS. 3 

tlic CongreBsional Centennial Committee to these Works they cx- 
preesed not only praise, but astonish irient at their extent, and tlie 
variety and excellence of the machinery produced. 

A large number of different styles of looms are made, all of 
which embrace in a greater or less degree improvements not pos- 
sessed by looms manufactured elsewhere. The several improvements 
in looms are covered by seven distinct patents. The improved 
self-stripping cotton and woolen carding-machine was improved and 
bronglit to its present perfection by Mr. Earton II. Jenks. Some 
twentj' tliousand dollars have been expended in perfecting improve- 
ments of the carding machine. 

Our country is indebted to Mr. Jenks for the first construction of 
the automatic wool-spinning mule. Much praise is due to him as 
the originator of the manufacture of this important machine in the 
United States, and thus enabling ns to compete with England in its 
production. Self-acting mules for wool are about one-third more 
complicated than those for cotton. During 1809 there were about 
five hundred imported, and it was an ambition to supply the 
growing demand that induced Mr. Jenks to turn his attention to 
the practicability of supplying them from his own works. "With 
this as his main object, he went abroad, and made a thorough ex- 
amination of the automatic mules in Europe. He included in his 
search the various descriptions of the machine, amounting to about 
fifty in all, in use in England, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, 
and Belgium. After bestowing upon the matter great personal 
care, lie finally decided that by far the most complete machine in 
existence was that of the Messrs. Piatt, Brothers & Co., of Oldham, 
England. He purchased one of these, shipped it to America, and 
immediately upon bis return devoted himself to the task of pro- 
ducing a copy eqnal, if not superior, to the original. That end has 
been reached, and the verdict of the experts who pronounced upon 
it declares it perfection. A slight idea of the superiority of the 
automatic over the hand mule may be formed from the statement 
that it dispenses with the wool spinner and twister, and at the same 
243 



4 BARTON H. JENKS. 

time manipulates about six hundred spindles, while the hand mules 
range from ninety to one hundred and fifty. As each spindle 
handles about a pound and a half a week, the difference is very 
considerable. The company expect to turn out one of these mules 
each day, and if necessary that power will be doubled. It is a 
great achievement oi the mechanic arts, and it deserves a proper 
reward. From this time no American need go beyond the limits 
of his own country to secure the very best spinning mule; nor will 
a mill bo stopped in its work by the impossibility of quickly re- 
placing some fractured part. 

lu 1S52 a patent was issued to Mr. Jcnks for improvements in 
looms for weaving figured fabrics; in 1854 a patent for another 
in)provement in looms, and in 18G0 a patent for an improvement 
in cotton-gins. For several 3'ears he has been experimenting upon 
and constructing the necessary machinery for a cylinder cotton- 
gin, lie has constructed a pump three hnndrcd feet in height, 
witii the capacity of ]>umping two thousand gallons per minute. 
Ho is sanguine of being able, at no distant day, to furnish the city 
of Philadelphia with forty millions of gallons of water per diem. 
When the war with the South broke out, Mr. Jenks erected an 
immense building with four wings, having a length of nine hundred 
and twenty feet, and filled it with all the best and most improved 
machinery for an armory. Five thousand Springfield rifle muskets 
were made each month until the close of the war. 

Bridesburg has obtained all its importance and prosperity from 
the location there of the machine works. The place owes almost 
its whole existence to Mr. Jenks and his father. Mr. Jenks con- 
tributed more than thirty thousand dollars for the erection of the 
free church of the Presbyterian congregation. He designed it as a 
memorial of his father, who was one of the ruling elders, an office 
to which be has himself succeeded. The church is built of gray 
stone, with brown-stone trimmings, and arched windows of stained 
glass, and has a lofty spire. 

Another of Mr. Jenks' liberal benefactions must be nuiieed. In 
244 



BARTON H. JENKS. 



answer to an appeal to tlie i)ublic for pecuniary aid from Lafayette 
College, at Easton, Pennsylvania, lie offered a i-ift of ten thousand 
dollars for the erection of a Chemical hall. His munificent dona- 
tion was received with thanks and blessings, and with characteristic 
business punctuality lie soon paid over to the treasurer the entire 
sum. On the 25th of July, 1865, the corner-stone of Jenks' Chem- 
ical Hall was laid on College Hill, with appropriate ceremonies. 
Rev. Professor W. Henry Green, of Princeton College, delivered 
the address, and in the course of his remarks said :— 

''He who extends the advantages of intellectual and moral 
training to those who would not otherwise have procured them, or 
renders more complete and thorough the discipline of mind Ld 
heart of those who are in a course of instruction, ought to be held 
in honor as a public benefactor. And when this is done by a per- 
manent foundation, whether by the erection of neat and appro- 
priate buildings, such as that which is here contemplated, for scien- 
tific uses, or by endowment, securing in perpetuity a succession of 
able and qualified teachers in sufficient numbers, or afltording to de- 
serving but needy pupils the requisite pecuniary assistance,°we see 
one of the noblest uses to which money can be put, and we admire 
their largeness of heart, and breadth of view, and far-sighted 
benevolence to whom God has given along with wealth this compre- 
hension of its real value, and the wisdom to convert it into exhaust- 
less mines of treasure which can not be weighed with gold." 

Jenks' Chemical Hall is built of dressed stone, and is seventy by 
sixty feet, with a projecting portico of the Doric style. The fourth 
story is appropriated to a museum of geology. A large lecture 
hall in the rear is planned also to exhibit the zoological department. 
Connected with the main hall are the rooms for private experiments 
and cliemical analysis, and the apparatus. The structure is a taste- 
ful addition to the college buildings, and in its purpose promises to 
be of the highest benefit to the cause of scientific education. 

Mr. Jenks has an erect figure, and a head of large proportions. 
The features are prominent, and highly expressive of the intelligence 
245 



Q BARTON II. .IKNKS. 

decision, and good nature tliat cimraeterize the man. He is polite 
and genial, but always much absorbed in his business and inven- 
tions. A man of good acquirements as a scholar, and withal a 
Christian, his society is much valued. He is liberal and just with 
those under him. It is his efl'ort to use his fortune not only in 
schemes of enterprise, but for the welfare of all classes of his 
fcliow-men. 

Tliese details of mechanical talents, business energy, public spirit, 
and practical benevolence tell their own significant story. They 
show how much can be done in a single life-time, and how nearly 
man may exalt himself to the perfection of usefulness and virtue. 
If our age had nothing else to boast of, its annals can never grow 
dim with such examples of manhood and success. 
246 




CHRTSTOPHER CHRISTIAN COX. 

^ HE subject of this sketch was born of highly respectable 
and influential parentage in Baltimore, Maryland, on the 
16th of August, 1816, where his early childhood was 



Lore of books became a passion with him at a very early period, 
and, indeed he may be said to have been a student almost from his 
cradle. After a thorough training in the classics and mathematics, 
under the best teachers, he entered, in September, 1833, the Junior 
class of Yale College, and was graduated from that venerable institu- 
tion in the summer of 1835. Among his college associates at that timo 
were many who have since acquired enviable distinction. Among these 
were Alexander S. Johnson, late Chief Justice of the State of New 
York, "William M. Evaets, Edwaeds Pierkepont, and others. 

The young graduate was designed for the law, his keen analytical 
mind eminently adapting him to that vocation; but, an incident di- 
verting his attention from the original object of pursuit, he entered 
vigorously upon the study of medicine in the ofiice of the late Dr. 
N. B. Ives, of New Haven. He received his diploma in Baltimore, 
after attending three full courses of lectures, and forthwith entered 
upon the practice. His health having been impaired by devotion 
to the lecture and dissecting room, he removed to the country, 
near Baltimore, and soon succeeded to a large practice, which, how- 
ever, contributed less to his scanty pecuniary resources than to the 
building up of his health and experience. 

In the fall of 1843, Doctor Cox located in Easton, Maryland. 
Here he soon rose to the highest distinction, his fame as a surgeon 
becoming rapidly diffused throughout the State. 

In 1848 he accepted the chair of the Institutes of Medicine in one 
247 



2 OHKISTOPHEK CHRISTIAN COX. 

of the Philadeliiliia Colle^'fs, hut at the close of the lecture term re- 
si-rned, and resumed his practice, lie became at this time a cuti- 
tributor to a number of medical journals, and an active member of 
the Medico-Chirurnical Society of Maryland, of which he was elec- 
ted President. Early after the organization of the American Med- 
ical Association be was known as one of its most active and earnest 
supporters, and the annual printed proceedings of that body abound 
in evidences of his zeal and ability. At the Chicago meeting in 
18(i3, be was elected one of the vice-presidents, and on the same 
occasion read an exceedingly able essay on Medical Education. His 
successive annual reports on American Medical Necrology are re- 
garded as very valuable contributions to the literature of the profes- 
sion. At the Cincinnati meeting, in 18G5, he was strongly urged by 
his friends for the Presidency, and failed only by a single vote in 
competition with the acknowledged head of the profession on tiiis 
continent. In 1866 he was sent abroad to represent the American 
Society in the British Medical Association, and other kindred scien- 
tific bodies. As the first accredited delegate from this country, he 
was most cordially welcomed by the savant of the Old Workl, and 
made many warmly attached friends in the profession. 

In 1861 Doctor Cox entered the army as Brigade Surgeon, and 
was at once assigned to most important ofiicial duties at Baltimore. 
He was at the same time appointed Surgeon General of Maryland, 
and performed the ardunus and responsible duties of both State and 
federal offices with signal credit and ability. In the spring of 18G9 
he resumed the practice of medicine in Washington, D. C, and was 
6oon after elected to the ehairof MedicalJnrisprudenceand Hygiene 
in the Medical Department of Georgetown College. 

Under the late law of Congress territorializing the District of 
Columbia, Doctor Cox was appointed by the President a member of 
the Board of Health, of which he was subsequently chosen the pre- 
siding officer. He now practices his profession with signal ability, 
and success in Washington, his reputation as an eminent surgeon 
and physician having preceded him. 
248 



CHEISTOPnEB CHIJISTIAN 



Occasionally by force of circn.nstances Dr. Cox has been com- 
pelled to take an active part in the civil and political issues of the 
day. He was twice nominated for Congress. The first offer was 
declined, the second accepted, and his election failed by a very small 
majority in a district strongly Democratic. In the fall of 1864 
he was surprised by the unanimous nomination for Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor cf Maryland, and was triumphantly elected, running in ad- 
vance of his ticket nearly two thousand votes. In this position he 
achieved the admiration and respect of all political parties. In 1865 
he was urged by his friends for the Senate of the United States, and 
would have received the nomination had he consented to be bailot- 
ted for. In 1868 he was appointed by President Johnson, and unan- 
imously confirmed by the Senate, as United States Commissioner of 
Pensions, which he resigned in 1869, in order to resume the prac- 
tice of his profession. 

As a ripe scholar, and man of letters. Doctor Cox has few equals 
He has been elected to honorary membership in many literary and 
scientific societies, both at home and abroad, and has been made the 
recipient of honorary titles from various colleges. Among these is 
that of Doctor of Laws from Ti-iuity College, Hartford. 

He has been a liberal and favorite contributor to various periodi- 
cals of note both in Europe and America, and has, it is said a num- 
ber of unfinished works nearly ready for the press. As an author 
and public lecturer he is widely esteemed, while as a ready, fluent and 
eloquent platform speaker, he has rarely been exceUed. 

The subject of this sketch may properly be classed among the pro 
gressive, representative men of the age. He is identified, more or 
ess prominently, with most of the great movements of the day and 
his merits are recognized by an appreciative public. 
_ Doctor Cox is of medium height, not robust, but compact and ac- 
tive. He IS full of energy, and, possessing an admirable physique 
unimpaired by bad habits, we may safely predict for him a lon<. 
life of usefulness and fame. " 

249 



RICHARD VAUX. 

''*'"'' ICETARD VAUX was born in December, 1818, in the 
city of Philadelphia, of Quaker ancestry, associates of 
Penn both in England and the colony. His education, 
although entrusted to private tutors, was carefully supervised by 
his father, Eoberts Vaux, who was so well known and so closely 
identified with the history of Philadelphia. At the age of nine- 
teen he entered upon the study of the Law with the Hon. William 
M. Meredith, and before his majority was admitted to the Bar 
of Philadelphia. Soon after this Mr. Vaux went to Europe, 
and on arriving in London, the Hon. Andrew Stevenson of 
Virginia, then the United States Minister at St. James', appointed 
him Secretary of the American Legation, ad interim, in London, 
to fill a vacancy in that position. Mr. Vaux was not then 
twenty-one years of age. Unexpectedly placed in so responsible 
a public post, it was his good fortune to be enabled to meet 
the leading statesmen of England. King William IV died, and 
the present Queen of England came to the throne soon after his 
association with the Legation, so that he was a witness of this 
interesting condition of the public aflfairs of Great Britain, and the 
ceremonies incident to these events. While thus employed, the 
diplomatic relations between the United States and England 
were disturbed by the troubles on the Canadian frontier, which re- 
sulted in the burning of the steamer " Caroline." During this ex- 
citing period in the public relations between the Government of 
this country and Great Britain, great labor was devolved upon 
the United States Legation in London, and Mr. Vaux performed 
his duties to the entire satisfaction of the American Ministry, as the 
251 



2 RICHAUU VAUX. 

records of the Department of State at "Washington attest. The 
lion. Virgil Maxey having been appointed American Minister at 
Brussels, on his way to Belgium, he passed through London. While 
there, ho requested Mr. Yaux to accompany him on his mission. 
This was declined, but Mr. Vaux went to Brussels and remained 
with Mr. Maxey until ho was settled in his Legation. About this 
time the Hon. George M. Dallas, then the American Minister at 
St. Petersburg, requested Mr. Vaux to accept the Secretaryship of 
his Legation, as the then Secretary, Col. Chew, was in ill health, 
and about to return home. The cordial friendship which Mr. Dal- 
las always entertained for Mr. Vaux, and the devotion of the latter 
to Mr. Dallas, almost prevailed in deciding the acceptance of this 
offer ; but circumstances arose which prevented it. Mr. Benjamin 
Rush, a son of Hon. Richard Eush, formerly Minister of the 
United States at London, and a grandson of Benjamin Rush, one 
of the " signers," was sent to London by President Van Buren, as 
Secretary of Legation, and Mr. Vaux, soon after his arrival, went 
to travel in Europe, the original object of his leaving home. 

Returning to his native city, Mr. Vaux began the practice of his 
profession. "While thus engaged, the Recordership of the city of 
Philadelphia became vacant, and the Governor of Pennsylvania, 
David R. Porter, appointed Mr. Vaux to that office. Young, correct, 
active, it was thought advisable by his friends that he should ac- 
cept the appointment for the benefit of the experience and legal 
knowledge there to be acquired. For seven years he filled that 
municipal office, and the legal opinions delivered by him on cases 
which he adjudged were published under the title of " The Record- 
er's Decisions." Resigning from this position, he again entered 
upon the active practice of his profession. 

"When the city of Philadelphia was consolidated with the " Dis- 
tricts," an election for officers for the consolidated city was held. 
At this election, Mr. Vaux was the candidate of the Democratic 
party, in which he was then and has ever since been a leading mem- 
ber, for Mayor. He was defeated, however, and his competitor, 
252 



RICHARD VAUX. 3 

Hon. Robert T. Conrad, was elected. At the next election Mr. 
Vaux was the successful candidate, and his administration of the 
city government of Philadelphia is part of its history. His admin- 
istrative ability was tested, and to this day the reforms and improve- 
ments he made, and the organization of the executive department 
of the city government are the best evidence of his ability. 

In 1859, and again in 1862, the State Conventions ot the Demo- 
cratic party elected Mr. Vaux Elector at Large for Pennsylvania, 
in the Presidential contests in those years. 

It may not be aside from the present purpose of the writer of 
this sketch to remark that, in 1842, the Supreme Court of Penn- 
sylvania appointed Mr. Yaux one of the Inspectors of the State 
Penitentiary for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. This Pen- 
itentiary, owing to its being the only institution in tlie United States 
where the " separate confinement " of prisoners is in successful oper- 
ation, has obtained a world-wide repiitation. Mr. Vaux, from that 
time till now, has been earnestly engaged in the discharge of the 
duties of this appointment. As President of the Board of Inspect- 
ors, he has wi-itten yearly its reports to the State Legislature, since 
1843, and they contain the arguments and facts on which the 
" separate system " rests its claim as the most philosophic system 
of convict punishment. The "National Association for the Pro- 
motion of Social Science," held in London in 186:2, requested 
Mr. Vaux to prepare a paper on Social Science, to be read at its 
meeting in July of that year. This request was complied with, 
and the essay entitled, "Penal: an element in Social Science," 
was submitted. 

The subject of education has received from Mr. Vaux careful 
study. Elected a Controller of the Public Schools of Philadelphia, 
he served in that position for some time. Again, in 1858, he was 
elected a Director of Girard College of Philadelphia, and by the 
Board of Directors was elected its President. His reports in that 
capacity have attracted very great attention. Mr. Vaux has culti- 
vated largely his literary taste. His public speeches and addresses 
253 



4 RIcnARD VAUX. 

aro evidence of a strong and vigorous style. As Grand Master of 
Masons of Pennsylvania, his treatment of the esoteric mysteries, so 
far as is permitted in oral or written teachings, and his addresses 
on public occasions, have been noticed in England and America. 

His style of speaking and writing is original, striking, and im- 
pressive. It has been said of him that, for his age, lew men have 
made more public addresses on so great a variety of subjects, and 
always with marked ability. Ilis reply, in Boston, to the speech of 
the late Hon. Edward Everett, was regarded by the large and crit- 
ical audience as a most masterly cfibrt, delivered as it was with but 
a few hours for preparation. As a popular orator he ranks among 
the most gifted. 

Our acquaintance with Mr. Vaux has been long and intimate. 
We can say of him, that a more upright, honest, conscientious, fear- 
less man is not to be found in any community. Ardent, earnest, 
sincere, true, he is emphatically a man of progress. "We remember 
well, in the year 1845, at a public dinner given in this city, he was 
invited to reply to the toast in honor of Philadelphia. In referring 
to the true interests of its citizens, he urged them to foster that great 
Railroad, the Pennsylvania Central, as intimately united with their 
material prosperity and progress; and wo cannot forget the impres- 
sion made on the company when he said that the man was then at 
that festive board who " would see the productions of China passing 
through Pliiladclphia on the way to London." Few then present 
ever dreamed that in six days they could travel from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific ocean by rail. " Mr. Vaux is a genius," said one of 
his friends to the writer of this sketch, " he masters so many sub- 
jects ; always in advance of his time ; thoughtiuUy considers all that 
engages his attention ; he suggests work for many hands to execute. 
He is not understood except by those who, like me, know him well ; 
he never gets tlie credit to which he is most eminently entitled." 
This is the true estimate of his character. 

We wish only to add that, in manners and disposition, he is cul- 
tivated, social, and genial ; a severe student, devoting all his energy 
254 



RICHARD VAUX. 

5 

to whatever he undertakes. " lie," in the words of another of his 
friends, in reply to a question of ours, preparatory to preparing this 
notice, has never failed to make his mark in every position he has 
neld. ' 

Of his literary labors, a notice can be found in Dr. Allibone's 
Dictionary of Authors. 

255 



^*tk 




L 



/^^ 



THOMAS C. FIELDS. 

^^ HE subject of this sketch is of Irish extraction, his ances- 

"rM^ tors having emigrated to this country in the early part of 
^f- the Kevolutionary war. He was born in the county of St. 
Lawrence, State of New York, on the 9th of December, 1825. 
He is the youngest of ten children, nine of whom are now alive. 
He inherited from his parents a robust constitution, uncomraou vi- 
tality and physical advantages and powers such as are rarely enjoyed 
by men of the present day. 

His elementary studies were pursued in the common schools of St. 
La-.vrence, and at an early age he was sent to the Delaware Academy, 
a well known seminary of learning in Dslhi, the shire town of Del- 
aware county. Young Fields went through a regular academical 
course at this institution, and graduated among the most advanced 
scholars of the establishment. 

Leaving theAcademyin 1840, he took up his residence in the city 
of New York with an elder brother, then in business in that city. 
After remaining in New York for a few months, Mr. Fields went to 
the State of Georgia, where he resided for about two years, when he 
returned to the city, and entered the office of the late Robert H. 
Mon-is as a student at law. 

After the usual course of preparatory study, he was admitted to 
the bar in 1846. He immediately commenced the practice of his 
profession, in which he has continued up to the present time. Mr. 
Fields had in him the making of a very successful and eminent law- 
yer, especially at nisiprius ; and if he had kept aloof from polities 
he would have won a place in the foremost i-ank of the profession. 
The law is a jealous mistress, and demands the exclusive attention 
257 



2 T II 0MA8C. FIELDS. 

of her votaries, if they woukl attain tlie liigiiest distinction at the 
bar. Ho is a powerful and efl'eetive advocate now, notwithstanding 
his public duties have engrossed so much of his time. He has the 
rare faculty of thinking on his legs with as much deliberation and 
consecutiveiiess as most men exhibit in the closet, and his ample re- 
sources are all at command with the least possible preparation. 

In the free-soil contest which divided the Democratic party in 1 844, 
Mr. Fields took the national side, and supported the nomination of 
Gen. Cass with characteristic vigor and determination. He took an 
active part in the election of Gen. Pierce in 1852 ; but he zealously 
resisted the policy of the administration on the Lecompton question, 
co-operating witli that large section of the Democracy which foresaw 
the disastrous consequences which resulted from that great mistake. 
He was a warm admirer and friend of the lamented Douglass, and 
enjo3'ed the confidence of that distiuguished statesman for the last 
fifteen yeai-s of his life. 

Mr. Fields entered public life in 1857, when he was appointed 
Public Administrator of the city of New York, which office he held 
until 1860. He was appointed a member of the Board of Commis- 
sioners of the Central Park on its organization, and has remained in 
that position up to the present time. 

He was elected to the Assembly in the Fall of 1862. There had 
been a very animated contest throughout the State. Mr. Seymour 
was chosen Governor over Gen. "Wadsworth, fresh irom the battle- 
field and covered wth laurels. There was a tie in the Assembly, 
and the struggle for the organization was protracted and acrimo- 
nious. The debates were bitter and personal. They were main- 
tained on the Democratic side almost entirely by Mr. Fields. His 
facility and resources commanded general admiration, while his pow- 
er of endurance was amazing to everybody. He had given much at- 
tention to parliamentary law, and understanding almost intuitively 
the rules of the House, he became at once the foremost floor-mem- 
ber on the Democratic side. He compreliended the situation at a 
glance ; and although alwavs an earnest and uncompromising Demo- 
258 



THOMAS C. FIELDS. 3 

crat, he never hesitated in giving tlie weight of his influence to the 
support of the Federal Administration in the prosecution of the war 
for the Union. 

If the sagacious counsels of Mr. Fields, in which he had the sym- 
pathy and support of Dean Richmond and many other far-seeing 
Democrats had prevailed, the party would have maintained the as- 
cendancy acquired in 1 862, and the tranquillity and material pros- 
perity would long ago have been restored. 

Mr. Fields was elected to the Senate fi-om the seventh Senatorial 
district in 1863. In that body he sustained the reputation he had 
acquired in the Assembly as a fluent, incisive and forcible debater, 
and his uncommon aptitude for legislative duties, strengthened and 
enlarged by two years' experience with several able and accompHshed 
associates of both parties in the chamber, rendered him a very effec- 
tive and important member of the Assembly, when he re-entered 
the House in 1870. He was re-elected the next year, and is now 
chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Griev- 
ances. He is also a member of the Committee on Insurances. He 
is the most conspicuous member of the Assembly, and his multifa- 
rious duties have been discharged with great judgment and perfect 
fidelity. 

Mr. Fields was appointed Coi-poration Attorney of the city of 
New York in the month of April, 1868, which office he now holds. 

As a leader, while he is bold, aggressive, and almost audacious in 
his bearing, he is not intolerant or illiteral, and is disposed to accord 
to the minority all the rights and privileges to which they are enti- 
tled. 

His distinguisliing characteristics are great acumen, a ready ap- 
prehensive mind, fine perceptive poAvers, and promptness in decision. 
He masters a subject with great facility, and is always thorough and 
exhaustive in his investigations. He is warm in his resentments, but 
never malignant or vindictive. He is frank and manly in his beai'- 
iug, rather positive in his opinions, but courteous in his manners, 
and never overbearing or unreasonable. 
250 




C^^...^ C^, '^^ 



RUSH R SLOANE. 



^^^E have in the career of the subject of this sketch 
/%^ illustration of what may be accomplished in this country, 
■*^^2s.- ty a young man of energy and decision of character, and 
possessed of good natural ability, although without femily influences 
or wealth to advance hina in his pursuits. Rush R. Sloane was born 
in Sandusky, Ohio, September 18th, 1828, where he has ever since 
resided, and has met in all his varied pursuits and engagements such 
success as is surprising, even had he been supported by powerful 
friends, and lived in a place where circumstances would have been 
more favorable for his advancement than in such a quiet city as 
Sandusky. Young Sloane passed his boyhood days at the schools 
in his native town, until in 1844 ; he was for a few months at the 
Seminary in Norwalk, Ohio, but his father's means not justifying the 
expense, he returned home, and in th.3 month of September of the 
same year made an engagement with the firm of Peck & Stapleton to 
open for them a hat, cap, boot and fur store in Monroe, Michigan, 
which he successfully carried on and had the sole management of, 
until in the month of April, 1845, he sold the same under directions 
from the owners, on most favorable terms, and returned to Sandusky. 
Having earned wages sufficient to again place himself in school, he 
continued for nearly two years in the schools of Sandusky, when he 
made an engagement with Messrs. Boalt & Follett to enter their 
office, they being engaged as warehousemen and in the produce and 
commission business ; he was giving good satisfaction in this situ- 
ation, when his father required liis services in his own store, he 
2Gi 



2 ilUSlI U. SLOANE. 

liivin,!? in the fiill of 1847 commcncpd the dry goods trade in San- 
dusky. Young Sloane opened a branch store at Bellevue, Ohio, 
under the name of Sloane & Co., which firm continued until the 
spring of 1848, when, under directions from his father, young Sloane 
sold out the same on good terms, and returned home, when he com- 
menced formally the study of the law, he having entered his name 
the preceding year as a student at law. The years 1848 and 1849 
he devoted to his legal studies, and on September 18th, 1849, the 
day he was twenty-one years of age, he was duly admitted to practice 
law in all the courts of the State of Ohio. He at once formed a 
partnership with W. F. Converse, an old established lawyer, under 
the firm of Convei'se & Sloane, which fii-m continued in successful 
practice until 1852, when Mr. Sloane continued the practice alone. 
An incident in connection with Mi-. Sloane while engaged in the 
practice of the law is worthy of special notice, and is spoken of by Mr. 
Greeley in his history of the causes of the rebellion. In October, 1825, 
Jlr. Sloane was called upon to defend some negroes who were seized 
as fugitive slaves; he at once appeared as their counsel, and on in- 
vestigation, found that they were detained without authority of 
law, and he so stated to the large and excited audience assembled ; 
the negroes were at once seized in triumph and carried to a boat and 
were soon over in Canada. With these proceedings Mr. Sloane had 
nothing to do, yet suit was commenced against him in the United 
States Court for the value of these negroes, and after a long litiga- 
tion under the infamous Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and the ruling 
of Judge Leavitt, Mr. Sloane was found guilty and mulcted in large 
damages and costs for simply acting as the counsel of human beings 
aiTGsted without color of warrant, as runaway slaves ; this litigation 
in all cost Mr. Sloane nearly five thousand dollars, and much 
time, which to him was then invaluable; yet, while it seemed very 
hard, and was a severe blow to a young man just starting in life, 
it gave him a national renown and warm friends all over the land, 
and perhaps tended more than any one matter to arouse the people 
262 



RUSH R. SLOAN E. 3 

Of th3 State of Ohio to the enormities of slavery, and to the outra..e- 
ous demands of the slave oligarchy, for legislation in Congress 
m Its behalf and support. Thank God, such case, will ba heard of 
no moz-e in this land ; and how terrible has been the retribution upon 
the upholders and defenders of slavery ! Mr. Slaane continued in 
the successful practice of the law until the spring of 1S58 when 
havang the year before been elected Probate Judge of Erie County' 
he quit the practice of the law, and entered upon his duties as Jud-^e 
of the Probate Court ; in 1830 he was re-elected to the same officl 
Havmgbeen tendered by President Lincoln the position of Ao-ent 
at urge of the Post Office Department, Judge Sloane resigned\is 
judgeship and entered upon his new duties. Being at Washinn-ton 
in March and April, 1861, Judge Sloane was selected at the or^ni- 
^ation of the " Clay Brigade" for the defense of the city, to select 
rehable men to unite in that organization. At that time Washing- 
ton was full of rebels. The convention at Richmond had broken up 
after givmg their adhesion to the "Davis " government, and it was 
daily expected that the rebel forces would attack Washington 
Gen 1 Scott was alarmed and wanted a brigade of true men to use in 
the defense of Washington, and selected Cassius M. Clay to or-an 
ly^e It ; Gen. Clay detailed Judge Sloane as one to select reliablelnd 
true men, and he was the first Ohio man who joined " The Clay 
Bz.gade, a bodyof men whodid the first active milita.7 duty in the 
defense of Washington, and in the safety of the President, whom the 
r.'bels had hoped to capture. 

This brigade was on service for weeks in duties demanded by 
Gen. Scott, then the Commander-in-Chief-services of the -Greatest 
importance to the country, in its then sore hour of need, when all 
conimunication with the north was cut off, and rebels in arms encir- 
cled the city on every side. At the request of Judge Blair, then 
Postmaster General, Judge Sloane was relieved after a time fromth, 
mihtary service, and engaged with zeal in the duties of his a^encv 
He soon became a favorite official with Hon. M. Blair, and Zs bv 



him selected as the First Assistant Postmaster General, upon the 
resignation of Hon. John A. Kasson, but cx-Govcrnor Randall hav- 
in;^ returned, and resigned tho Mission to Rome, President Lincoln, 
without consultation with Judge Blair, appointed ex-Gov. Randall 
to the position. 

Jud"e Sloane was desirous to leave the service of the Post Office 
Department and enter the Military, hut the Hon. Postmaster 
General would not consent. Judge Blair insisted that he must have 
an equally efficient man in the position, and that if Judge Sloane 
resigned, some one must fill the place, and if he could help it, there 
should be no change, that the integrity of the army required frequent 
and reliable communication with home friends, and this could only 
be had by a most efficient Post Office service. 

Judge Sloane continued in the faithful discharge of his official duties, 
and was at three different times specially commended in letters by 
Judge Blair for his valuable services. A new law was passed, creating 
a higher grade of agents, and it was Judge Blair's intention at once 
to appoint Judge Sloane to one of the highest grade. At this time 
Hon. Wm. Dennison succeeded Judge Blair in the P. 0. Depart- 
ment, and he at once, on the recommendation of his predec3ssor, 
appointed Jud^e Sloane to the highest grade agency in the Depart- 
ment, only two being created by the law, and not filling the other 
place. 

In 18t)5 Judge Sloane was elected Chairman of the Republican 
State Central Committee of Ohio, and most successfully carried on 
the canvass in that year, although circumstances at that time tended 
to decrease the republican strength, and to greatly embarrass its 
leaders. President J ohnson was determined in his opposition to the 
reconstruction plans of Congi'css. For a long time the friends of the 
republican party hoped for a satisfactory adjustment of all differences, 
but in the summer of 1SC6 a split became inevitable, and at this 
time the President and his friends held out every inducement to 
Judge Sloane to sustain the policy of the President, but finding 



EUSHE. SLOAN E. 5 

the President obstinate, and determined to oppose the action of 
Congress in their policy, Judge Sloane refused to co-operato 
or act with the Johnson party, so-called — and in consequence thereof 
was removed from his official position in the month of August, 
1866. 

It was no sooner known that Judge Sloane was disengaged, than 
the owners of the Sandusky, Dayton and Cincinnati Eailroad 
tendered liim, for the second time, the management of that road, 
and the presidency of the company, and in October, 1866, he entered 
upon these new duties. The road had become greatly delapidatcd 
and was really in a most unsafe condition, and was shunned alike by 
travelers and shippers of freiglit. Its present condition as a first-class 
railroad, and the reputation of its management, is a sufficient com- 
mentary on the business capacity and ability of Judge Sloane, 
and has given him such a reputation among railroad men and 
capitalists, that he has twice been offered the presidency of leading 
lines of railroad, with the tempting salary of ten thousand 
dollars a year. He is now the moving spirit, as well as one of the 
principle owners and capitalists, in the building of a new line of rail- 
road between Columbus and Springfield, Ohio ; and upon the com- 
pletion of this road proposes to retire from active railroad manage- 
ment. Judge Sloane lias engaged quite largely in real estate invest- 
ments from time to time, in Chicago, and other cities in the "West, 
and his gains in these and in his railroad investments have been 
such as to give him an independent fortune— for the West— and ho 
wiU have sufficient requirements upon his time in giving such 
attention as is requisite to his own private business. 

At times Judge Sloane has been favorably spoken of as the 
Eepublican Candidate for Congress in his district, and in 1864 
received the full vote of two counties for the nomination, and this 
was done after his name had for weeks been absolutely withdrawn 
from the canvass ; also in 1868 ho received for some twenty-three 
ballots the vote of all the townships but one, in his own 
265 



6 HUSn U. SLOAN E. 

county, and for several Lallots the entire vote of his own conniyanc' 
some from Huron and Ottawa Counties, for the Republican 
Congressional Nomination, and his friends were sanguine of his 
nomination by the Convention, but at this juncture ho 
peremptorily withchew his name, as he liad from the first 
been disinclined to enter the contest, on account of his extensive 
and engrossing business duties. Judge Sloanehas of late devoted his 
entire time to his railroad operations, and personal business matters, 
and few, if any, have all their business more systematized, and under 
more perfect control ; a great workev himself, he required the 
prompt discharge of all duties on all employees, and the result is 
seen in the economy with which he manages the railroads under his 
charge. Judge Sloane, although over forty-two years of age, is yet 
apparently a young man, and as full of energy and fire as ever; he 
enjoys good and robust health, is socially inchned, and warmly 
beloved by his friends; generous, yet imostentatious, in a quiet way 
he pursues his duties in life, and is in every respect an example 
that young men may gladly emulate. 

To be the possessor of such a name as his, of so extensive and 
favorable a reputation, both business and political, and to have 
acquired at so young an age so large a property, and so wide an in- 
fluence, must certainly bo most gratifying to him. 

We doubt not a yet more brilliant future is before him, and 
that yet higher distinction awaits him, although he insists that 
his only desire for the future is for a quiet home life, and that he 
shall seek the same, and shun the cares, duties and responsibilities 
of official and business life, which course, should he succeed in pur- 
buing, would entitle him to high rank in the category of true philo- 
sophers, and as one who had been able to discover the source of true 
hap}>iness, while temptations of no ordinary attraction suirounded 
him on every side. Certainly we can not too highly commend such 
an exaraj.le for the study of the youth of our land. 
266 




j?>6i^^^^^^ 



G0VF:RN0R THOMAS CARNEY. 



j,'^Ti|(T;is!'i HOMAS CAEll^EY, of Leavenworth, Kansas, was born, 
'f^ in Delaware county, Ohio, August 20th, 1824. His father 
■^0- James Carney, died when Thomas was but four years old, 
leaving his widowed mother with four boys, the eldest be- 
ing but six years of age. The family resided upon a small farm, 
with only some six acres improved. Delaware county was, at that 
time, a comparative wilderness, and afforded but limited education- 
al advantages. The common school education which young Thomas 
received, was acquired in a log cabin, wliich he attended during the 
winter months until he arrived at the age of eighteen. He then at- 
tended school for six mouths at Berkshire, Ohio, paying for his board 
and tuition by working nights, mornings and Saturdays. , 

At this period, young Thomas began the battle of life for himself, 
bis first engagement being to work on a farm for six months at ten 
dollars per month. At the end of that engagement he sought em- 
ployment in a store, which he succeeded in obtaining after very de- 
termined and persevering effort. He was entirely unaided, having 
no friendly hand to assist him. He visited several of the stores in 
the small towns of his county seeking employment, but for a time 
without success. One instance is related which furnishes an exam- 
ple to the young of the value of perseverance. In 18M, Thomas 
called at a small store in a neighboring village, and asked the pro- 
prietor if he desired to procure help. The response was that he did, 
upon which the young adventurer offered his services. The ]iroprie- 
tor, after making a critical survey of the applicant, remarked that 
he did not think he would make a merchant. This ungracious re- 
ception was not pleasing to tlie young man, and as he turned to leave 
'■2G7 



9 OOV.TnOMASCAENET. 

ho remarlced that he would yet see the day when, as a morchaut, he 
could buy and sell the patty monarch of the village store. This pre- 
diction, though uttered by a boy who had not twenty-five dollars in 
the world, has long since bean fulfilled ; for Thomas Carney has giv- 
en away more money, for various purposes in a single year, than it 
has been the good fortune of the Ohio merchant to possess in the 
coui-se of a long life. 

Being unsuccessful in his immediate neighborhood, lie visited 
Columbus. "With his "bundle " under his arm, he went down one 
side of High street and up the other, calling at all the stores with- 
out regard to the nature of their business, whether dry goods, gro- 
cciics, boots and shoes or what not, and had almost completed the 
rounds before receiving even an encouraging word as to e'mplo}Tnent. 
He at last found a retail dry goods firm in want of help, who were 
willing to give him a trial, and ofiered him fifty dollai-s and board 
for one year's service, which ofler was accepted. At the expiration 
of the year he engaged for another year at one hundred dollars. At 
the tcmiination of that engagement he determined to enter npon a 
larger mercantile field, andvi.?ited Cincinnati, taking with him rec- 
ommendations from his late employers and neighboring merchants. 
He engaged himsel-f with a large wholesale dry goods house for five 
ycai-s, at three hundred dollars for the first year and one hundred 
dollai-s advance each year for four years thereafter. At the end of 
the five years he was ofiered, and accepted, a quarter interest in the 
business, and his name was placed at the head of the firm. 

lie remained in business four years and a half, devoting to it all 
his energies and abilities, until his health became impaired, when he 
was advised by his physician to give up business in the city for a 
time and try the country air. Quiet was incompatible with his na- 
ture, and therefore as soon as he had arranged with his partners to 
take his business, he set out to look at the great "West. In the sum- 
mer of 1S57, he visited most of the "Western States and the territo- 
ries of Kansas and Nebr.iska. He was so much pleased with Kan- 
sas that he decided to make it his home, and on his return to Cin- 
2GS 



GOV. THOMAS OAENET. 8 

cinnati, he made arrangements to commence business at Leaveaworth 
during the ensuing spring. 

Located at his new home, he pursued his business closely, until 
the fall of 18G1, when, without his seeking, he was elected to tlie 
legislature of the State. The important events in which he partici- 
pated, brought him prominently before the public. Some of the 
State' officers who had been intrusted with the sale of bonds of the 
State, had transcended tlieir powers by employing an agent who sold 
the bonds largely below the pi-ice fixed by law. Mr. Carney parti- 
cipated in the investigation which followed, resulting in the im- 
peachment of the Governor, Auditor and Secretary of State. The 
two latter were subsequently convicted, but the former was acquit- 
ted. During the investigation the agent who had sold the bonds, 
taking advantage of the fact that the State had no money in its 
treasury, offered to return the bonds which had been sacrificed upon 
a reimbursement of their price. In a speech to the legislature, Mr. 
Carney announced his readiness to advance the money to the State, 
thus making an acceptance of the proposition practicable, where- 
upon it was immediately withdrawn. 

His couri;e in this and other important matters which engaged the 
attention of that legislature, made Mr. Carney jiromiuent and pop- 
ular among the people, and much against his inclination, he was 
brought forward as a candidate for Governor, to which position he 
was elected in November, 1862. He entered upon the duties of his 
oflice in January following, and at a time when the State was great- 
ly in need of his executive ability. It was tlie critical period of his 
history. Its treasury was empty, and its credit was at the lowest 
ebb. Tiie Governor advanced the means out of his own purse to 
pay the interest then due upon its bonds for one year, thus prevent- 
ing dishonor and irreparable injury to its credit. "When he left the 
Executive chair the credit of the State was unequalled by that of any 
other new Commonwealth. Its bonds sold at nearly par, and its 
financial standing was upon so sound a basis that it has ever since 
ranked among tho very best of the new States. 
269 



4 G O V . T H O M A S C A R X E T . 

Nor were the Governor's abilities less taxed in other respects. 
His administration covered the most trying period of the late war. 
The State was in peril at almost every point, and its settled portiou- 
were one extended camp. A rebel foe hovered upon its eastern and 
southern bordei-s, while hostile Indians were murdering and scalping 
in the west. Nothing short of a constant vigilance could prevent 
the rebel enemy from invading the State and butchering the people. 
The Governor armed and placed upon the eastern border one hun- 
dred and fifty mounted men, to warn the inhabitants of approaching 
danger, and for this service he advanced the means from his own 
pocket. CoHiperating with these rangei-s, were the regular militia 
of the State, for whom excellent arms and equipments had been pro- 
cured by the energy of the Executive. These mounted forces were 
kept in the field until the Governor was notified by the command- 
inir General of the district that he was able to protect the State. 
They were then discharged, and in three days thereafter Lawrence 
w!is in ashes and one hundred and eighty of her citizens murdered 
in cold blood. Meantime the young men of Kansas were hurrying 
to the field in proportionate numbere unequalled by any other State. 
No Governor contributed more lavishly of his means and energies 
for the encouragement of enlistments than did Governor Carney, 
and in tliis regard, though operating on a more limited field, he is 
worthy to be ranked with the most famous of the " War Governors.'" 

During the legislative session of Wii, Governor Carney was 
chosen United States Senator by a two-thirds vote of both houses, but 
as considerable dissatisfaction was expi-essed because it was thought 
the prupci time for the election had been anticipated, (although no 
specific time had then been fixed by Congress,") he surrendered his 
credentials and declined the position. The succeeding Legislature, 
though understood to be spe(!ially friendly to a political rival, unani- 
mously adopted a resolution commending in warm terms the able 
and efficient manner in which the Executive duties had been dis- 
charged during Governor Carney's administration. 

Returnini; to Leavenworth, the ex-Governor wiis elected il^xor 
270 



8 CARNEY. 



of that city, notwithstanding his positive refusal to serve. At the 
urgent soh'citation of many leading citizens, however, he finally con- 
sented to serve, and was re-elected with but trifling opposition. 

Governor Carney retired from public life in 1866, since which 
time he has been mainly devoted to his private business and has 
acquired an ample foi-tuiie. No man in Kansas is more honored 
and respected than he, and no man has done more, either in a public 
or private way, for the advancement of his State and its institutions. 
Its railroads, bridges, church33, scliool-houses, and its citizens need- 
ing assistance, all bear truthful witness to his liberality and bounty. 
His unbounded hospitality in private life has made him troops of 
friends, and as warmly endeared him to the wide circle of his per- 
sonal acquaintances as his gcnerousness in public has secured for 
him from the citizens of his State the recognition his munificent 
spirit seems to deserve. Without ostentatious parade, he seeks the 
accomplishment of good works, and there is no man in Kansas so 
highly esteemed for the possession of those genial qualities which 
in social life have made him deservedly popular. 

Governor Carney was reared a Whig, and since the dissolution of 
that party has been an earnest and steadfast Rapublican, ever advo- 
cating equal rights for all witliout regard to race or color, and de- 
manding the largest liberty for the citizen consistent with good 
government. 

History furnishes but few as salient examples of what important 
results can be evolved, through vigor, determination and rectitude, 
from amid nnpropitious surroundings. Few in their spheres have 
done more for humanity, and it is pleasant to know that in blessing 
others few have been themselves more largely blessed. Governor 
Carney is still in the prime of life, and may reasonably anticipate 
many years of accumulating honor and usefulness. 
271 




HENRY A. SMYTH E. 

^^HERE 13 not a more prominent or esteemed merchant 
^nm and financier in the city of New York than the gentleman 
who forms the subject of this sketch. Mr. Smythe is de- 
scended from two of the distinguished families of this State. 
Ilis parental father was one of the early settlers of Delaware county, 
New York, then spoken of as the " far west." Here he read law 
with the Hon. Anthony Marvine, the fiimous lawyer, who for some 
time represented his district in Congress, and whose daughter Abra- 
ham D. Smythe married. It will thus be seen that on both the pa- 
ternal and maternal sides Henry A. Smythe comes from " good old 
stock," a fact wliich is always a njatter of satisfaction, however much 
we may, in our republican theory of equality of all men, ridicule 
the idea that there is anything more than accident in one's birth. 
And, indeed, while the distinction gained by a man's parents may 
not make him any the more talented than his neighbors, it at least 
inspires him with the laudable ambition of perpetuating such dis- 
tinction, so that, after all, " the old families" of a locality who have 
maintained a high standing in the community for many generations, 
Iiave i-eason to feel proud of their ancestry. 

Henry A. Smythe was bom in the town of Hobart, Delaware 
county, in the year 1819. At Delhi, in the same county, be received 
a good academic education, displaying so much proficiency in his 
studies that at the age of fifteen he was able to leave the academy 
and enter upon his business career. He went to Catskill, where he 
entered a store in the capacity of a clerk, and after serving for about 
one year, acquiring some practical knowledge of commercial afl'airs, 
he removed to New York. Hero he first obtained a position of 
273 



2 UENBYASIIYTIIE. 

responsibility in one of tlio large jobbing and importing cstablish- 
mont3 of the oil}' conducted by tliu Lathrops. Shortly afterwards 
he left this iirni and entered the house of Paton & Stewart, where 
he first engaged in tlie importation of dry goods. A few years later 
tlio building occupied by tlio gentlemen niunod was entirely con- 
sumed by fire, and tliis accident dosed the business. Had Mr. 
Sni\ the l)een an ordinary man, ho would have probably found it a 
difficult matter to obtain another position. But lie had already 
made ids nuirk among tlio merchants of New York, and was re- 
garded by many as a valuable aciiuisition to any house. So highly 
appreciatetl was his business talents and general capacity, that im- 
mediately after the tire had dcsti-oyed the firm of Paton & Stewart, 
he was otiered a i>artnorship in the firm of S. T. Jones it Co., then 
tlio largest importere of British goods in the city. 

Mr. Smytlie continued his connection with Jones & Co. until 
1846, during \shich year ho joined the firm of Francis Skinner & 
Co., of Boston, to which city he removed and residoJ there for a few 
months, when he i-eturned to New York and, as the only partner 
there, opened a branch business. This was the pioneer house from 
Boston in domestic commission goods in the city, and it was followed 
by many otliei-s in after ycai-s, until at the present time the business 
of these branches in New York amounts to over one hundred mil- 
lions of dollai-s annually. "When Mr. Smytlio started it, hoAvever, it 
met with consideralile opposition from the Boston mercliauts, who 
desired to keep the trade in their own city. To establish himself suc- 
cessfully, it consequently became necessary to overcome all the intlu- 
ences wliich were brought to bear against the innovation. His tact 
and energy oveix'anie all obstacles, and his success finally made 
those who had most earnestly opposed him, not only acquiesce in 
the wisdom of his course, but also influenced them into imitating his 
example. Mr. Smythe had perceived that as a commercial city, 
Boston did not have the advantages possessed by New York, and 
tliat if Eastern manutVcturei-s wished to prosper, they must make 
the latter city their hoadquartei-s f >r disposjil of their manulaotures. 



HENEY A. SMVTIIE. 



Eis wisdom in tLis opinion was apparent in a very short wbile. The 
branch house prospered exceedingly— far surpassing tlie most san- 
guine expectations of the firm of Skinner & Co. When Mr. Smythe 
retired, after eleven years connection with it, he left the business in 
a flourishing condition, whicli demonstrated his mercantile ability. 

This was in 1857. During the same year he established the firm 
of Smjthe, Sprague & Cooper. It will be remembered this was the 
year rendered ever memorable as the one of the great commei'cial 
crisis. Mr. Smythe, as the principal partner and managing member 
of the firm, displayed great skill and marcantile acumen during this 
eventful year. In the mid it of the great excitement which prevailed 
in commercial circle:-, and wh2n tha resoarcas of many solvent men 
were strained to tha utmjs^ and almost every merchant suspected 
his neighbor of being a bankrupt, he remained confident and un- 
dismayed. He not only carried his hou33 successfully through the 
crisis without loss to their constituents, but his large business s^ered 
no diminution, and wa,s indeed remarkably profit^vble at the very 
penod when everybody else was complaining of "hard times," and 
wlien numerous merchants were daily added to the lists of insolvents. 
And the same success which attended Mr. Smythe in 1857 followed 
him throughout his commercial career in all the revulsions of busi- 
ness from that year until 18G4, when he retired fi-om the firm to 
devote his attention to finance. There have been but few merchants 
of New York who have presented a career of such unvarying tri- 
umphs, won not by chance, but by the application of sound judg- 
ment and judicio>js manag3ment. Mr. Smythe had to build up a 
business. It was like making something from nothing, as indeed 
all new speculations, however legitimate, must be Uke. It is not 
enough to have the goods; purchasers must be found for them, 
Mr. Smythe found them and kept finding more and more every 
year until he had built up one of the most extensive houses of com- 
merce in New York. 

On retii-ing from mercantile affairs, Mr. Smytlie.was the principal 
capitalist in organizing the « Central National Bank," of which he 
275 



w as elected tlie president. His success as a banker was uot less 
signal than it was as a merchant. To preside sncccsstull.y over a 
banking institution, great executive ability is needed ; a thorough 
knowledge of finance is required, as well as tact, energy and firmness. 
These requisite qualifications were possessed, as they still are, by 
Mr. Smythe in an eminent degree. The bank, which he was mainly 
?jstrumental in calling into existence, had not been engaged in busi- 
ness much over two years when its deposits had reached the enor- 
mous sum of twenty-five millions of dollars and had become one of 
the most flourishing concerns of the kind in the United States. This 
exceptionally rapid progress must be attributed to Mr. Sinythe's 
admirable management. His character and reputation were alike 
so favorable that the mere fact of his being at its head was a guar- 
antee of its reliability, and doubtless, to a great extent, the cause of 
its receiving so striking a proof of public confidence; but the most 
enviable reputation may be possessed by a man who has not the 
first qualification for conducting a bank. The business of ti-ading 
in money is the most delicate and intricate in the world. A single 
false step may involve it in utter ruin. Hence it will be seen how 
great is the talent necessary to profitably conduct a bank, and more 
especially to take one in its infancy and establish it firmly. 

Previous to organizing the " Central National Bank," Mr. Smythe 
had been for thirteen years a director of the Bank of Commerce,' in 
which institution he acquired that experience in Bnance which he 
subsequently turned to such good account. He was also, and still is, 
a director in three of our largest Life and Trust companies, and in 
four or five of the Fire Insurance companies of the city of New 
York, besides holding a large number of private trusts. He had 
also paid some attention to railroad matters, having been for several 
years a prominent director in the Hudson River Railroad. 

All of our prominent business men have been more or less brought 

into politics, and Mr. Smj'the is no exception to the rule. He is 

not, however, and never has been, in any sense of the word, a poh- 

tician. He was formerlv Icnown as an old line Whig, and after the 

276 • 



dissolution of his party joined tlie Kepublican organization, prefer- 
ring it to that of the Democracy, but scarcely approving of its ten- 
dency to radicalism. His nature is essentially conservative, while 
sympathizing with real, tangible progress. The great political ques- 
tions which agitated the country, and which culminated in the 
secession drama, received the most serious attention from Mr. 
Smythe. He was a strong opponent of negro slavery, and is a de- 
voted lover of the Union. When the rebellion broke out he unhesi- 
tatii^gly advocated coercion, and he supported the Government with 
all his abiHty and influence while the contest lasted, at which time 
he was a very heavy loser pecuniarily. After the Southern Con- 
federacy had been overthrown, Mr. Smythe advocated a hberal pol- 
icy towards the South. Accustomed to examine carefully both sides 
of every controversy, he had never been a partisan in politics ; hence 
it was that he could look at the political situation calmly and dispa^ 
sionately. He believed that a full restoration of the Union, and the 
prosperity of all the States, were only possible by an early settle- 
men of the questions before the public at the close of the war. Mr. 
Smythe, therefore, supported the early measures of President John- 
son, looking to the re-organization of the Southern States and their 
representation in the Congress. Considering how much injury was 
inflicted upon the material interests of the country by the agitation 
of the reconstniction question, it is impossible to avoid the"conclu- 
sion that had Mr. Smythe's sentiments been adopted by Congress, 
they would have resulted beneficially for both sections. 

Throughout his life Mr. Smythe had never sought an office, and 
until 1866 he had never held one. During that year, at the solici- 
tation of an immense number of merchants, embracing members of 
all political parties. President Johnson appointed him Collector of 
the Port of New York. Never before had an appointment given 
more general satisfoction. Mr. Smythe's sterling integrity, his ad- 
ministrative and executive ability, and his non-partisan character 
was a promise that he would perform the duties of the position effi- 
ciently. A few days after .his name was sent in to the Senate tlie 
277 



appointment was confirmed, and he at once took charge. Tlie work 
before Mr. Smytlie was enormous. Political influence had greatly 
impaired the etficiency of the Custom-house. Majiy corrupt men 
bad succeeded in entering its service, and complaints were loud and 
frequent that the business was most loosely and unsatisfactorily 
performed. Upon Mr. Smythe devolved the work of reformation. 
Of course, in carrying out his plans he was not left undisturbed. 
The politicians first tried to compel him to subserviency to their 
will, but he rejected their overtures and defied their threats. Find- 
ing that they could not use him, they next tried what defamation 
would do, but their abuse could not shake tha public confidenc3 in 
his honesty and capacity. The reforms he made were thorough and 
sweeping. They greatly facilitated the transaction of business, 
made corruption on the part of employes more diflicult, and in- 
creased the efficiency of the Customs service generally. During his 
term of office a less number of cases were seat to Washington for 
adjudication than during the terms of any gentleman who has held 
tho same position, and simply because Mr. Smythe had so systema- 
tized the business that troubles were rendered difficult of occurrence ; 
and throughout his administration the obnoxious but common prac- 
tice of taxing all employes in the custom-house for political pur- 
poses was dispensed with, 

Mr. Smythe held the office of Collector of the Port of Is'ew York 
until after President Grant's inauguration, when lie resigned. While 
Collector, President Johnson appointed him to the important diplo- 
matic position of Minister Plenipotentiary to Eussia. The Senate- 
however, failed to come to a vote on the appointment until the end 
of the session, although it wa^ known that a large majority of the 
Senators would have voted in favor of its confirmation. 

Afler retiring from the Collectorship, Mr. Smythe went to Eu- 
rope with his family, visiting the various cities and towns of interest 
and note and remaining abroad for some yeai-s. On his return he 
resumed business as a financier, and has recently organized the 
" New York State Loan and Trust Company," of wliicli ho is the 
278 



HEN R T A . 



president. This institution is at the present writing about com- 
mencing business operations, and, judging from the past career of 
its president, we have no doubt that under his maiuigament it will 
meet with marked success and prosperity. 

Socially, Mr. Smythe is one of the most genial and entertaining 
of men. His conversational powers are notable and his company i** 
always attractive. Kind-hearted and charitable, he has always been 
foremost in performing good deeds, and has been connected with 
several of the benevolent institutions of New York. Cultivating 
the Christian virtues, he is just and liberal, while stern in exacting 
from all connected with him a strict adherence to dnty. He pos- 
sesses a remarkable knowledge of men, and is therefore seldom de- 
ceived in the estimates he places upon the characters of those with 
whom he comes into contact. All who know him, and whose good 
opinions are worth having, esteem him highly. It may be doubted, 
indeed, if there is another prominent character in New York with 
a larger circle of sincere friends. It has been said of him that he 
never forgets a friend, and that he is slow to forgive an enemy. So 
far as the latter characteristic is concerned, the statement may be 
open to doubt, but the former is unquestionably true. Mr. Smythe's 
friendship is highly valued because it never fails those upon whom 
it is bestowed. 

Honored, esteemed and popular in business, political and social 
circles, we find Mr. Smythe to-day in the midst of a career of ex- 
ceptional success, gained by his own talent and exertions. He is 
now in the prime of life and bids fair to attain an old age, being as 
sound in body as in mind. 

279 






4» 



/:' /r../(?^///¥.-.'^ 



COLONEL JOHN J. McCOOK. 

"^^OLONEL JOHN J. McCOOK, the subject of tbis 
sketcb, is tbe youngest member of a family that bas al- 
ways been well and favorably known throughout the coun- 
try, but more especially since they made themselves famous 
by their distinguished patriotism and gallant service in the armies 
and navies of our country during the late war. 

The McCooks were among the many Scottish families who, being 
firm in their Presbyterian faith, were driven from their homes dur- 
ing the religious persecutions and settled in the north of Ireland. 

Throughout their long residence in that island, they seemed to 
have maintained many of the traits and marked characteristics of 
their northern home ; but constant association and occasional inter 
marriage with the people of their adopted nation, gave to us a race 
which, of all othei's, was, perhaps, best fitted for the pui-pose of 
performing so great a part in the settling and development of our 
country. 

The Scotch-Irish element, although numerically small, has ab^ays 
exerted great influence in our midst and commanded the respect and 
admiration of all. 

To this element we are indebted for many of the brightest exam- 
ples of the men most successful in their calling, whether at the pul- 
pit or bar, on the field of battle, or at the head of great commercial 
entei-prises. 

During their residence in Ireland, that branch of the McCook 
family which we are now following, devoted their attention to agri- 
culture and manufactures ; although tbe official lists of the British 
army show that even then they possessed the military spirit that 
281 



3 OOLONELJOHNJ. itOOOK. 

evincetl itself so remarkably a hundred years later, wbcu Judge 
Daniel McCook and his nine stalwart sons responded to the first call 
of the President for volunteers, \yhcn the struggle for oui* national 
existence began. 

In 1797 Colonel MeCook's grandfather emigrated to this country, 
first settling at York, Penn., but soon after removing to the then 
almost wilderness of "Western Pennsylvania, and located at Canons- 
burg, in Washington county, where for many years he conducted a 
large and general commercial business. 

He was prominent in the organization and support of Jefferson 
College in that town, one of the oldest academic institutions of the 
West, and from which his three sons were graduated. 

Of these three sons one. Dr. George McCook, is now living, and 
although well advanced in years, yet maintains himself at the head 
of his profession in Western Pennsylvania. 

The second, Dr. John McCook, each of whose five sons served 
with honor and distinction in the land or naval forces during the 
war, died just as peace was declared, a sacrifice to his devotion to 
the hospital service. 

The iiistory of the third son, Jiidge Daniel McCook, who with his 
nine boys served from the commencement of the war, is familiar to 
all. It would require a volume to give in detail the sei-vicos of this 
gallant old man, who fell at the age of si.\ty-four in the front of 
battle, and of those of his nine sons ; so we must confine ourself to a 
mere list of their names, and leave to a saved and strengthened 
nation the grateful duty of singing the praise and honor of those 
who poured out their hearts' blood in her defence. 

Major Daniel McCook, (father,) killed at battle of Bufiington 
Island. 

Surgeon Latimer McCook, twice wounded, and died of disease 
contracted in service. 

General George W. McCook served in Mexico and also in the 
late war. 

Lieutenant James McCook died in naval service. 
2S2 



COLONEL JOHN J. M COOK. 3 

General Robcit L. McCook, wounded in battle and afterwarda 
killed by guerillas. 

General A. McD. McCook served throughout the war. 

General Daniel McCook, Jr., killed at battle of Kenesaw Moun- 
ain. 

General E. S. McCook, three times wounded, but served through 
the war. 

Charles M. Me Cook, private Second Ohio Infantry "Volunteers, 
killed at hrst Bull Eun. 

Colonel John J. McCook, once wounded and served through the 
war. 

Colonel John J. McCook, the subject of our sketch, had but 
recently entered Kenyon College when the war commenced, and 
although but sixteen years of age, be quickly doffed the student's 
gown for the uniform of a private soldier. 

During his four years of life in the field, he served with both the 
Western and Eastern armies, and for service in ten battles he was 
as many times especially mentioned in the official reports of corps 
and division commanders, and recommended for promotion, which 
in due time came to liim. 

During General Grant's campaign against Eichmond, Colonel 
McCook received a wound that for the time disabled him from field 
service, but the long days of slow recovery were carefully devoted 
to study, so that when the war was closed he returned to college 
and was enabled to pass an examination on the subjects which his 
class had passed over during much of his absence in the field, and 
thus graduated but one year later than the class with which he 
originally entered college. After a year's study of the law at Steu- 
bcnville, Ohio, Colonel McCook repaired to Harvard University 
from which he received his degree of LL.B. 

He then returned to his home in Ohio, where for two years he 
devoted his whole attention to the management of a large estate 
which he held in trust, and to a careful study of the great and 
largely increasing system of railroads of that State. 
2S3 



4 OOLONELJOnNJ.JICOOK. 

Early in the present year Colonel McCook made bis lioiue in New 
York city, and first became identified witli the great law firm of 
Brown, Hall & Vanderpoel, but a few months later be associated 
himself with the firm of Alexander & Green, where he devoted 
himself to the law of railroads and insurance, of which departments 
he has made a specialty, and already his influence is being felt and 
respected among the controlling minds of those great interests. 

Colonel McCook inherited the powerful physique of his Scottish 
ancestors as well as the untiring energy of that race. 

Possessing as he does an active mind and sound judgment, ho has 
been enabled to conduct with remarkable success the important en- 
terprises which he has undertaken, and is markedly entitled to a 
place among the practical and progressive spirits of our times. 

Colonel McCook is yet a young man, and has a future of great 
usefulness and promise before him. 
284 




HEITET C. CARET. 

fEKRY C. CAREY was born 15th of December, 1793, at 
Piiiladelphia. In 1S19 he became a partner in the book- 
publishing business with his ftither, Mathew Oarej, and 
in 1S21 his successor, continuing the pursuit, as leading partner 
fii-st in the firm of Carey & Lea, and subsequently in that of 
Carey, Lea & Carey, until tlie year 1S38. In 1824 lie initiated 
the system of periodical trade-sales, now the established method 
of exchange between publishers. Inheriting an inclination to in- 
vestigations in political economy, and occupied with business con- 
genial to his favorite study, he commenced his long career of 
discovery and of authorship by the publication, in 1835, of an 
" Essay on tlie Rate of Wages, with an Examination of the Differences 
in the Condition of the Laboring Population throughout the World." 
This work was substantially absorbed and expanded in his "Princi- 
ples of Political Economy," of tliree octavo volumes, published 
successively in 1S37, 1S3S, and 1S40, and subsequently republished 
m Italian, at Turin, and in Swedish, at Upsal. The central and piv- 
otal proposition of this work, to be known thereafter as "Carey's 
Law of Distribution," surprised European economists not more by its 
novelty than by the force of its demonstration. Twelve years later 
the distinguished French economist, Fred. Eastiat, in his " Harmonies 
Economiques,-' adopted the "Principles" of Carey-as Professor 
Ferrara, of the University of Turin, expresses the coincidence-" in 
theory, ideas, order, reasoning, and even in figures." In the dis- 
cussions that since have followed, its fundamental principle is known 
to the readers of his work as his tlieory of "labor-value." M. Bas- 
tiat phrased it "service-value." Marking as it does a grand epoch 
235 



2 HENRY 0, CARET. 

in the history of the science, it is entitled, even in so brief a notice 
113 this, to the follo-\ving condensed expression : 1st, Labor gains 
increased productiveness in the proportion that capital contributes 
to its efficiency; 2d, Every improvement in the efficiency of hibor, 
so gained by the aid of capital, gives so much increased facility 
of accumulation ; 3d, Increased power of production lessens the 
value in labor of capital already existing ; bringing it more easily 
within the purchase of present labor, for the reason that value can 
not exceed the cost of reproduction. These simple, self-proving 
propositions were felt to have tlic power of revolutionizing the 
science of political economy, by taking from it the dismal prediction 
of ft constant tendency in tlie distribution of wealth, under a law 
of necessity, towards greater destitution of labor, and correspond- 
ingly enormous increase in the power of capital. This law of labor- 
ralue was, however, destined to obtain a still wider and grander appli- 
cation—its fundamental principle an universal range. The commonly 
accepted doctriue that men, in the settlemeut of land, clioose the 
best soils tirst, and, according to Ricardo's theory, arc empowered 
by such priority of possession to charge, as rent, the ditlerence 
between the productiveness of the last and lowest grade that comes 
into occupancy and that of those previously in use, was full of 
despair to the on-coming generations of men. Of what avail to 
humanity was the benelicent law of distribution governing tLe 
joint products of labor and capitd, if the law governing the occu- 
pation of land were really at war with it ? Confronted with this 
appiirent contradiction in the system of Providence, he challenged 
the facts on which it had been supposed to rest, the results of 
his inquiry having been given to the world in ISiS in a volume 
entitled " The Past, Present, and Future," which must be regarded 
as the most rigid and exhaustive instance of application of tlie 
inductive method to be found in the whole range of economic litera- 
ture. The authentic history of ages past with its contrasted con- 
ditions of contemporary communities, on the broadest scale, is 
found bearing the most positive refutation of the Eicardo tlieory ; 
2S6 



HENRY C. CARET. 3 

and even the most minute and familiar examples of topograpliic 
detiiil add tlieir testimony to the invariableness of the newly discov- 
ered law in obedience to which the richer soils are reserved for the 
latest settlement of tiie earth, and the latest applications of capital 
and labor to their cultivation. So complete was the demonstra- 
tion, that theorists who had built their systems upon the 
assumptions of Malthus and Ricardo were compelled to surrender 
them to the facts and arguments then so conclusively arraved 
against them. 

As early as 1S3S Mr. Carey published his work on " The Credit 
System in France, Great Britain, and the United States," which 
tiie Jo^mud des Economistes then pronounced " the best work on 
the credit system that had ever then been published;" in 1851 
" The Harmony of Interests," which Blackioood:'s Mcujazine recom- 
mended to all who wish to investigate the causes of the progress 
or decline of industrial communities. In 1853 appeared "The 
Slave-Trade, Domestic and Foreign : "Why it Exists ; and How it 
May l)e Extinguished." Concurrently with these systematic treatises 
in book-form, his pen was busy with pamphlets and newspaper 
contributions, applying his doctrines to exigencies of the passing 
time. It is not within our limits even to enumerate these pro- 
ductions. They cover every topic of the times in any way related 
to the philosophy of business, cuiTency, politics, interaal and 
international affairs, the subjects of his studies for nearly half 
a century; and he continues this service to the public still, 
with all the ardor of a young lover and all the effectiveness of a 
veteran. 

In the years 1858-59 Mr. Carey digested the doctrines of his 
previous productions into a single work of three volumes, octavo, 
entitled " Principles of Social Science," which has since, under his 
own supervision, been condensed into a "Manual of Social Science," 
by Miss McKean ; and in an introduction to one of the German 
editions of this latter, which he entitles " Eeview of the Decade, 
1857-67," he has given the most remarkable vindication of its 
287 



4 H KNRY C. CARRY. 

lo;i(lui<r doctrines to be found in any de])artnient of science applied 
to the affaire of nations. 

Students of political economy, familiar with the distracting am- 
higuity of the general terms of the science as they are employed 
by the systematic writere of Europe, must recognize and appreciate 
Mr. Carey's definitions, a few of the most general and important 
of wliich show the fundamental differences of the system of our 
American economist. 

Social Science treats of the laws which govern man in his efforts 
to secure for himself the highest individuality, and the greatest 
power of association with his fellow-men. Political economy 
treats of the meastavn required for so co-ordinating the movements 
of society as to enable those laws to take effect. Wealth consists 
in tlie power to command the gratuitous services of nature. Pro- 
dtiction consists in directing those forces to the service of man. 
Capital is the instrument by which man acquires power to direct 
the forces of nature to his service, and consists of land and its im- 
provements, ships, wagons, roads, houses, churches, engines, plows, 
implements, books, clothing, food, moral and mental powei, and 
especially that moral force to which is due the existence of a 
credit system which, in all advancing countries, assumes ever-grow- 
ing proportions to all other kinds of capital. Value is the measure 
of nature's resistance to man's power, the limit of value being the 
cost of reproduction. Utility, the measure of man's power over 
nature. Labor, the first price of all things that have exchange 
value. Money, the grand instrument of association, its value, 
like that of all other things, being determined by the cost of repro- 
duction. Money is capital, whether in the shape of the precious 
metals, in promises to pay, or in any other conventional form by 
means of which exchanges are effected. Commerce consists in 
the exchange of sei'vices, products, or ideas, hy men directly. 
Trade is the performance of exchanges intermediately for 
other persons, being the agency used by commerce, in different 
degrees of indirectness, with proportionate loss, cost, or other in- 



HENRY C. CAREY. k 

jury, to the extent allowed or compelleri. Land, a macbiue, uiidoi 
the laws of all products of human eifort, its value being wholly 
due to labor. His definitions of the dependent terms of art are 
all in keeping with those given of the more general and essential. 
It is scarcely necessary to inform the reader tliat Mr. Carey is not 
responsible for the exact Ibrm of words in which the logical ele- 
ments of his theory are here expressed. To his " Principles of 
Social Science" the student i^ inferred for the required fullness 
and illustration of methodic statement. 

The principal and some of the minor works here named have 
been translated and published in one or other, and some of them in 
several, of the following languages: Italian, French, German, 
Swedish, Eussian, and Hungarian. In Germany, particularly, they 
have been frequently reprinted. 

Enjoying an enviable popularity, surrounded by the most charm- 
ing domestic influences, and having earned, by years of public ser- 
vice, the confidence of every one that knew him, his power for 
good is wide-reaching and acknowledged. 
289 



DR. I. I. HATES. 



BY ADOLPH HUGEL. 



fR. I. I. HAYES was born in Chester County, Pennsyl- 
vania, March 5, 1832. The scene of his birth is one of 
the richest agricultural districts of the old Keystone State. 
His father, one of the largest and most successful farmers of that 
fertile region, is a strict member of the Society of Friends, or Qua- 
kers, as they are more popularly known. His ancestors were among 
the followers of Penn. 

The subject of this sketch was educated in the strict precepts of 
the faith of his fathers, thus precluding him from studying law, to 
which his first inclinations tended. He applied himself for a time 
to civil engineering, his proficiency in mathematics being especially 
marked, causing him to be selected as tutor of his class at the 
age of seventeen. A year later he began the study of medicine, 
and finally received the degree of M. D. from the University of 
Pennsylvania, April 5, 1853, just one month after attaining his 
majority. 

Throughout his youth he had manifested a decided inclination 
for the study of the exact sciences, and to his fondness for mathe- 
matics was added an almost passionate love for the study of geogra- 
phy in all its varied branches ; and the scope to which he applied 
geographical knowledge can not be bstter illustrated than by an 
extract from an address delivered by him before the American 
Geographical Society. 

jifter styling Geography, in the words of Malte-Brun, " a living 

picture of the universe," ho proceeds to say : " Geography may 

be likened to an unfolding scroll, ever fresh with novelties to y)lea3e 

the mind and delight the fancy. We read there the general prog- 

291 



2 DU. I. I. nATKS 

rp?>; of all the sicicnccs and of tho arts; of tlie iufluein-os of reli 
gion upon communities of men, and of schemes for their advance- 
ment ; of every thing indeed which concerns human history ; of 
barbarous peoples brought within the pale of civilization ; of new 
lands for enterprising men, new products for the lap of commerce." 

His spirit and disposition were adventurous, and he excelled in 
all manly exercises, especially in horsemanship, of which he was 
particularly fond. It is not surprising that the practice of medi- 
cine proved to be scarcely adapted to his nature. The writer 
of this sketch has oflen heard him say, that the sight of pain, 
without any positive means of arriving at either cause or rem- 
edy, was so aggravating to him, that he bad not the nerve to 
undertake the responsibilities of a physician. With surgery and 
anatomy, which were more positive, he had no such fault to find, 
but pursued his studies in these depai'tmonts with zeal. 

While thus occupied, the uncertain fate of Sir John Franklin 
was arousing the sympathies of the civilized world, and the thoughts 
of the young student being turned in that direction, the founda- 
tion was laid for bis subsequent renown. 

In the autumn of 1S52, it had been determined by the pliilan- 
thropic merchant, Henry Grinuell, to fit out a second expedition 
to take part in the search, and to intrust the command of it to Dr. 
E. K. Kane. In December, 1852, Dr. Kane being in Philadelphia, 
the young student sought and obtained an interview with him, 
which resulted merely in the promise that the applicant would be 
remembered if he concluded to take a medical officer witb the ex- 
])edition, an event barely possible. 

Here the matter rested, and the youthful aspirant ibr Arctic 
adventure heard of the preparations which were making for tlie 
departure of the expedition, with not the least expectation of being 
called upon to take part in it. 

In the spring, while ardently engaged upon his preparations. Dr. 
Kane, never at any time throughout his spirited and heroic caieer 
a strong man physicnlly, was stricken down with inflammatory 
292 



DR. I. I. HATES. 



iltloii. 



rhcuinatisin, from which he recovered iu a very enfeebled coi,..,, 

Acting upon the advice of his friends, he now determined to t 

a .surgeo7i with him, and remembering the student who appealed to 
him in the previous December, he sought Dr. Hajes and offend 
Jiim the situation, which was promptly accepted. Two days after- 
ward, May 31, 1853, the expedition sailed from New York, and 
the young man who had never been a hundred miles from his 
father's house, set out upon an enterprise destined to become one 
of the most famous of modern times. 

In the operations of this expedition, Dr. Hayes took a most con- 
spicuous part, notwithstanding his youth and inexperience. En- 
thusiastic and energetic in whatever he undertook, he soon gathered 
a valuable collection of natural history, never allowing an oppor- 
tunity of visiting any new locality to escape him. His botanical 
collections were of especial value, and from the situations in which 
they were made, attracted much attention. 

It is known that the expedition, failing to penetrate to the Polar 
Sea, on account of the heavy ice, wintered near the mouth of Smith's 
Sound, in lat. 78" 37', in which position their small vessel, the brig 
Advance, was frozen fast in September, and was never released. 
The long winter night came on, and the party were one hundred 
and thirty-six days without once seeing the sun, darkness reigning 
most of that time. Upon the return of daylight the explorers set 
out northward, with sledges, over the solid ice. 

With these various journeys and the temble hard5hii)s and suf- 
ferings attending them, the public is familiar through Dr. Kane's 
narrative of the voyage. The crowning achievement was the dis- 
covery of the Polar Sea by William Morton ; but scarcely less im- 
portant, was the discovery and survey, by Dr. Hayes, of Grinnell 
Land, the mo.'^t northerly land known. This journey, which resulted 
in a success so important, was peculiarly difficult and hazardous. 
It was made with a small team of dogs, and one companion, who 
was, throughout the journey, alternately mutinous and in violent 
despair of ever extriiating himself from tlie dangers intowhicli liis 
2;*3 



4 rn. I. I. HATES 

commainlcr was leading him. Once lie tlircatcned the life of Dr 
Hayes, and liad it not been for the latter's fearless and quick move- 
ment in seizing tlio rifle at the very instant of its discbarge, this 
desperate attempt of a man rendered insane by fatigue and suOering 
)night have been successful. 

After tliis, one would think something more than ordinary cour- 
age was required, with such a companion, to push on day alter 
day over a rugged and apparently interminable plain of ice and 
snow, in search of land which he was confident was before him, 
and which he was determined to reach. In order more certainly 
to insure success, he threw away his bedding to lighten the heavy 
load his weary dogs were dragging, and slept without any other 
covering than the sky, while the temperature was still below zero. 
Thus overcoming every obstacle his perseverance was finally re- 
warded. He greatly extended our geographical knowledge of the 
region around the North Pole, and planted the American flag upon 
the newly discovered land, in latitude 80°. 

This journey was attended with so many hardships that Dr. 
Hayes was completely broken down upon his return, and for some 
time thereafter was perfectly blind from exposure to the constant 
glare of the sun, an irritation of the eye very common to the north- 
ern latitudes, and known as snow-blindness. 

The Adcance not being liberated in the autumn of 1854, a party 
of volunteers, of which Dr. Hayes was one, was organized to 
seek relief from a Danish settlement— a forlorn hops of the most 
heroic and daring character. Although unsuccessful in achiev- 
ing the object aimed at, it was not without its good results. A 
narrative of this journey, unparalleled in tlie history of Arctic 
adventure, having been published by Dr. Hayes in a book entitled 
" An Arctic Boat Journey," which has been before the public for 
several years, and has passed through several editions, most readers 
are familiar with the story. Some idea of the fearful sufferings of 
this boat party may be gathered from the fact that, being over- 
taken bv the winter, they were forced to live in a miserable hut, liter- 
294 



DR. 



ally burierl in the enow, tlirou^li three winter months, without firo, 
and often without any other food than stone moss {triiie de rorhe), 
which they gathered from the rocks, after clearing away the deep 
enow with an iron plate, their only shovel. The terrible alterna- 
tive of cannibalism was at one time threatened, after two weeks 
of this wretched diet (which was scanty, full of sand, and innutri- 
tions), and was only prevented by Dr. Hayes, who was finally 
rewarded for his firmness by the timely arrival of some wild Es- 
quimaux, who not only saved the lives of the party, but helped 
them to succor their sick and sufiering comrades in the ship. 

As is well known, the expeditionists finally escaped from their 
ice-bound vessel, and after sailing over a thousand miles in their 
boats, were picked up and brought home by the United ^ates 
ships under command of the late Captain Hartstene, sent out by 
the government to search for them. This occurred in October, 185.5. 

Dr. Kane dying early in 1857 from the eifects of the voyage, 
left Dr. Hayes the only conspicuous representative of Arctic ex- 
ploration in America, and the mantle of his deceased commander 
fell naturally upon his shoulders. He at once announced a plan 
for renewing the explorations which Dr. Kane had begun, in a 
paper read in December, 1857, before the American Geographical 
Society in New York. His scheme was simply to follow up the 
line of approach to the Pole that had been pursued by Dr. Kane. 
Although a committee of co-operation was appointed by the society, 
very little interest was manifested toward a renewal of the explo- 
ration, and it was not until Dr. Hayes, in August, 1858, calling the 
attention of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, to his project, that its ultimate success was placed beyond 
doubt. 

The paper which he read to the Association was a clear and ear- 
nest exposition of his views. It was listened to with great interest 
by the beauty and intellect of Baltimore, which crowded 4he 
immense hall of the Maryland Institute, and excited the liveliest 
sympathy. 

295 



Tiwii ooiii'luiiing, 11 rofiolution of tlwinks was entlinsiiisticully 
voted the orntor, and, upon tlio proposition of tlie late Professor 
Macho, ft t'oniniittoo of sixteen was appointed to co-operate with 
liini in tlie organization of the enterprise. Atter this the principal 
scientilic societies of the Ui\itod States signitiod tiieir disposition 
to lend thoir aid, vet, notwithstanding, " tlie sinews of war" were 
not forthcoming until the spring of 1860, when he finally sailed in 
a schooner of 183 tons with a crew of fifteen men. Although this 
scheme had occupied his time for many years. Dr. Hayes had yet 
only attained the age of twenty-eight the year ho sailed. 

The history of this voyage has been given to the world by Dr. 
Hayes, in a work bearing the title of " The Open Polar Sea," and. 
iiavinsr been translated into the (German and Frencli languages as 
well as republished in England, the public is generally familiar 
with the result of the voyage. It may not, however, be here out 
M' place, to recite the most conspicuous features of the expedition, 
whicli was in all i-espects one of the most successful ever made 
into the Arctic regions. 

As has been shown before. Dr. Hayes possessed a great fondness 
for natural history, and although occupied with the cares and re- 
si>onsihilities of command, his personal collections were probably 
the largest over brought by any single expedition from that quarter. 
In physics he had associated with him Mr. Augi>st Sonntag, of 
Ciennany. whose death duriug the first year of their absence was a 
.<ad and serious loss, not only to Dr. Hayes, but to the whole scien- 
tific world, for he was unquestionably one of the ablest and most 
pmniising scientific men of his time. Like his friend Dr. Hayes 
(the two liad served together under Dr. Kane), he was still young, 
dying in his twenty-ninth year. Dr. Hayes in his narrative makes 
the following touching allusion to his desolate resting-place: 
" And here in the drear solitude of the Arctic desert, our comrade 
sleeps the sleep that knows no waking in this troubled world — 
where no loving bauds can ever come to strew his grave with 
tlowei"s, nor eyes grow dim with sorrowing ; but the gentle stars, 
296 



DR. I. I. HAVKS. Y 

ffliic-li in life he loved so well, will k.ep over him eternal vigil, and 
the winds will wail over him, and nature, his mistress, will drop 
upon his tomb her frozen tears forevermore." 

This great calamity to the expedition naturally curtailed some of 
its results. Most important obBcrvations were however mad ■ in as- 
tronomy, hydrography, meteorology, njagnetism, and for the deter- 
mination of the configuration of the earth at the poles by means of 
the vibrations of the pendulum. These, forming a series of rare 
value, were published in detail in one volume by the Smithsonian 
Institution. The geographical explorations were still more im- 
portant, at least in a popular sense, as were also the geological. 

Dr. Hayes had in his voyage with Dr. Kane gained large experi- 
ence in the exploration of glaciers, having performed an extensive 
journey to the mer cle glace ; but he was now to mount the mer dc 
glace itself; and to penetrate fairly into the interior of Greenland, 
where there is nothing to be seen but a vast region of ice and snow, 
covering the lofty mountains and in many places completely filling 
up the valleys to the same elevation as the highest peaks. 

Although this journey was made in October, before the winter 
had fairiy set in, yet the temperature at their highest elevation 
(5,000 feetj fell to 34° below zero, and this severe degree of cold" 
being attended with a gale of wind. Dr. Hayes had much difficulty 
in saving his party from freezing. By careful management they 
all escaped without serious accident. 

The most important feature, however, of the geographical discov- 
eries of the voyage was the extension of the survey of Grinnell 
Land (which he had begun in 1854) from latitude 80° to latitude 
82° 45', culminating in a promontory which he named Cape Unif>ii, 
little imagining at the time, the peculiar significance of the name, 
for this was in May, 1861, when the Union, quite unknown to him, 
was threatened and civil war had really been inaugurated by the 
bombardment of Fort Sumter. 

The shores of this land were found to be bathed by the oi)en Polar 
Sea, and the further progress of the explorer was prevented by the 



\v;itiT. t'orsiiur tlic j. iiriiov h;Hl liooii iiiado witli (loi; sleilgei- from 
tlic wiutcr-qnarters at Port Foiilkc, there were no means at hand 
of navijratin-,' it. The furtliest point reached was nearer to the 
North Pole tiian liad ever heen attained before by any explorer ex- 
cept Sir Edward Parry ; and further tlian any one liad ever 
reached by hnid. Thus had Dr. Hayes planted his country's flag 
upon the most northerly known land of the globe. 

The history of this si>irited journey, Mhieh occupied sixty days 
and resulted so triumphantly — made over interminable ridges of 
hummocked ice and through deep snows, while the temperature was 
sometimes as low as 00° and even 68° below zero, while sledges, 
dogs, and men were continually breaking down nnder the distress- 
ing labor, while the food by day was scant and the sleep by night 
was in a snow hut — reads, as lias been aptly observed by a London 
review, more like some tide of wild romance than the simple state- 
ment of fact. The entire distance traveled was estimated at 
1,300 miles. On setting out, the party numbered twelve persons; 
but all of them except one, Mr. George F. Knorr, were sent back, 
or were finally left behind, owing to their utter inability to further 
continue their laborious mai-ch after their resolute leader. To con- 
vey an idea of the nature of the traveling, it is only necessary to 
state that the party was once detained fourteen days in making 
only forty miles. 

We can well understand the emotions of the explorer as he stood 
upon the laud he had discovered and looked out upon the open 
water before him, which he confidently believed extended to the 
Pole, and which, being without a boat, he wi\s unable to traverse, 
lie writes in his narrative, evidently with much feeling : " I quit 
the place with reluctance. It possessed a fascination for me, and it 
was with no ordinary emotions that I contemplated my situation, 
with one solitary companion, in that hitherto untrodden desert." 

For this important achievement Dr. Hayes has received the most 
distinguished honors that can be bestowed upon a geographical 
explorer, among the most conspicuous being the diploma of honor- 
298 



DR. I. I. HATES. 



ary memberehiij of the Royal Geographical Societies of Berlin 
and Italy ; the Patrons' Medal of the Eoyal Geographical Society 
of London, for 1867 ; the Grand Medal of the Geographical Society 
of Paris, 1868, besides other evidences of distinguisiied apprecia- 
tion, not least among which may be reckoned one possessing at this 
time something of mournful and melancholy interest,— the cross of 
officer of the Order of Guadaloupe, sent him by the accomplished 
gentleman and unfortunate emperor, Maximilian of Mexico. Nor 
has the American Geographical Society been behind its sister asso- 
ciations of foreign countries in contributing, by resolution, their 
acknowledgments to one who had done so much to make Ameri- 
can enterprise and character respected abroad. 

The expedition was unfortunate in one especial particular— in 
the circumstance that, owing to the unusually heavy ice which was 
encountered in North Baffin's Bay and Smith Sound, the expedition 
schooner. United States, was badly damaged, and instead therefore 
of attaining a more northerly position than that of Dr. Kane, as he 
had expected, Dr. Hayes was forced into a winter harbor consider- 
ably to the south, thus necessitating, not only an additional distance 
over the ice when the sledge journeys came to be made in the 
spring, but likewise the covering of tlie entire grounds previously 
gone over by Dr. Kane before new explorations could be accom- 
plished. Besides this he met with a serious disaster in tlie death 
of the greater part of his dogs, upon which he had relied for field 
service. But notwithstanding these drawbacks most important 
additions were made to our knowledge as has been already shown. 
The crippled condition of Dr. Hayes' vessel unhappily compelled 
him, after being frozen up in the ice ten months, and absent 
fifteen, to sail for home in order to refit, and he reached the United 
States in the autumn of 1861 with the intention of returning north 
to resume his explorations the following spring, little expecting to 
find the country occupied with a gigantic civil war. Perhaps the 
most touching of the incidents of Dr. Hayes' narrative is his arrival 
in B,..-ton, and his first realization of the state of the countrv which 
299 



10 I'K 1. I 11 A Y KS. 

lio Itiul It'l't at [U'lu-o aiul iti tlio liii;liosi pivsitority. Tlie jmrly had, 
lit Ilalit'ux, whoro tlioy put in for ropiiirs (Imving boon aluiosjt 
wrookod l>y ii sovoro {j;iilo off the coast of Liibrador), loariiod somn- 
iliiii:; of till' .-tato of tlio oountrv; but whou thoy arrived in Bos- 
ton Hay llioir worst foai-s sooniod realized; a heavy fog liid every 
tliinjj; from view and " the night wtis tilled '' says the narrative, " with 
ai\ oppressive gloom. The lights hanging at ti>o mast-heads of the 
vessels whioii wo passed had the ghastl}' glimmer of tapers burning 
in a eharnel-lntuso. Wo saw no vessel moving but our own, ami 
those which lay at anchor appeared like phantom ships floating in 
the murky air. I never saw the ship's company so lifeless, or so 
depressed even in times of real danger." 

Each man dourly anticipated some personal calamity, and wiicn 
tiiey reached their anchorage and learned of the battle of Ball's 
I>lutr, which occurred the previous day, in which some of the 
host regiments of Massachusetts were so fearfully eut to pieces, their 
worst feai's were realized, and '' it seemed as if the very air had 
shrouded itself in mourning for them, and the heavens wept tours 
for the city's slain." 

The terrible reality was now fully realized, and without a 
moment's loss of time Dr. Hayes, abamloning for the time his dar- 
ling project of polar exploration, decided upon his couree. To 
ipiote his own words. "I resolved to postpone the task with which 
I had charged myself; and I closed as well the cruise as the pr<.>- 
ject by writing a letter to the President, svsking for immediate em- 
ployment in the public service, and otfered my schooner to the 
government for a gun-boat." 

But the schooner proved to be too small for the new service in 
which Dr. Hayes and his crew were desirous of aiding their country. 
The vessel not being therefore accepted by the government, Dr. 
Hayes sought duty in a Held poriiaps bettor calculated to exhibit 
his \inusual administrative talent, his skill in commsind, and fac- 
ulty for organization. The President conunissioned him a surgeon 
of the LTnited States V"i>lunteers, and early in the spring of lSti2 
300 



he was detailed to construct and organize at Philadelphiji a hoapi 
tal for wounded soldiers, on a scale never before attemj^ted eitlier 
in civil or military affairs. 

The duty was not so congenial to Dr. Hayes' natural disposition 
as more active service in the field ; but, being ordered to the task, 
he accepted it with characteristic alacrity, and in two months liad 
constructed a building capable of containing upward of four thou- 
sand patients, which, togetlier with the attendants, composed a 
family of five thousand souls. This command he held until the 
close of the war, and it is safe to say that his hospital was from 
first to last the model hospital of the United States Army. His 
method of administration was generally adopted throughout the 
service. With Dr. Hayes it was quite a labor of love and patriot- 
ism, his personal ambition lying in a very different field ; and a severe 
labor it was. He was never absent from his post a single day, 
except upon special service, to which he was occasionally ordered, 
and no man could possibly have performed his duty more conscien- 
tiously or more thoroughly. With a firm hand he held the reins of 
his large command, and brought every thing to the system and order 
of clock-work, the result of which was manifested in the unusual 
low rate of mortality among his patients. Out of nearly thirty 
thousand who passed under his care, mostly of the worst class of 
caes from the battle-field, he lost by death less than six hundred. 

With the termination of the war, Dr. Hayes' public career 
ended. He has since occupied himself with literary and scientific 
pursuits, occasionally lecturing, for which latter, his fine voice, 
ready delivery, and clear method particularly adapt him. Indeed 
he has been often heard to say that he never would have commanded 
an expedition to the Arctic seas had he not assiduously cultivated 
the art, in which Americans as a people so much excel, of public 
8]ieaking. His last literary work, without respect to occasional 
magazine ari;icle8 on various topics, was a book for boys, entitled 
" Cast Away in the Cold," which first appeared in Our Young 
FolJcK magazine, and, as a book, has run through several editions. 
301 



19 IMJ. I. 1. II A \ F S, 

Fivm a paper rosui Ivforo tlio Aniorii-an Goographioal Society in 
November. 1868, detailing tl»o pn^givss of Aivtio disoovorv up to 
that time, aiul setting forth his plans for fnrther explorations, wo 
!in> UhI toMievethat he still contemplates the rt>ne\val of the enter- 
prise which the war compelled him to abandon temporarily, as he 
annonnco^l at the time. As he is still on the suimy side of life, 
let ns hope for the sake of science and the conntry that he may 
vet adhere to his original resolution. Ljist year he made a short 
summer voyage to (iivenland. with the view of making some pre- 
liminary pn>j^ar!Vtions h-Kiking to th.nt end. and to a furtJier explo- 
ration of the Greenland glaciers, the results of which have not yet 
Ihvu publisheil. 

302 



c 






^' ///• ( uiuy. 



GEORGE M. CURTIS. 



^^MONG the men who have attained judicial eminence 
early in life, George M. Curtib, of Naw York City, is eon- 




He is now thirty years of age, and though one 
of the Judges of the Marine Court of tlie metropolis, he 
may be regarded as but just entering the field of legal renown. The 
intellect of the jurist invariably receives its highest development 
after thirty. And the persistency with which this young Judge 
studies and cultivates himself, is the best guaranty that he will at- 
tain the sumjnit in his profession. Not only does he labor indefati- 
gably in the causes submitted to him for decision, but he burns the 
midnight oil in the midst of bis legal library, fortifying himself with 
the knowledge of principles and precedents for future use. 

This young jurist may be said to possess a iS^apoleonic mind, and 
rapidity of decision. He is, indeed, physically like the impetuous 
Corsican. The resemblance is the subject of frequent comment 
among friends and strangers. He renders his decisions at times with 
the promptness and insight of genius. He unquestionably possesses 
file gift which rendered Peter Cagger, of Albany, so marvelously 
efficient as a leader in the political arena, viz., the power to read ac- 
curately the character of men with whom he is brought in contact. 
With this talisinanic key to the human heart within his grasp, it is 
difficult for witnesses in his court to deceive or mislead him. He 
seems to be conscious when falsehood, no matter how sedulously 
veiled, stands before him. 

But his gifts are not exclusively legal. He is a cultm-ed scholar 
in the realm of history, poetry, and general literature. He h.is an 
inmiU- love for military opei-;itio'is. and his military sketches, con- 
3U3 



2 O E O E Q i; M . C U Ti T 1 8 . 

li-ibntetl to the public press, have attracted marked atteiitiou from 
army men. Ills recent article upon the war between France and 
Prussia, and its relations to the future of the two empires, was in- 
stantly copied into the Army and Navy Gazette. He contributes 
frequently to the press of New York, and his delineations of the 
turf and the popidar sports of the day, are re><arded as master-pieces 
in their way, and exhaustive of the subject. His correspondence 
from Em-ope in the summer of 1870, and iiis letters from the Ameri- 
can watei-iug-places, are justly regarded as of the highest literary 
merit. His political articles are clear, trenchant and powerful. He 
is also a natural orator, and in the State Legislature was regarded as 
one of the most brilliant debaters of the day. 

He was born on the 20th day of June, 1811, in the State of Mas- 
sachusetts. At the age of 21, he was admitted to the New York bar. 
He was elected to the legislature of New York in 1863, and in that 
session made the admirable defence of Governor Seymour, and his 
great speech in vindication of the municipal rights of New York 
City. In May, 1865, he became the Assistant Corporation Attor- 
ney of the same city. He was re-elected to the legislature in the fall 
of that year, and particularly distinguished himself by his able speech 
upon the " Health Bill." In 1867, his legal abilities had become 
so universally recognized that he was elected a Judge of the New 
York Marine Court, and was at the time of his election the young- 
est man ever chosen to a judicial position in the United States. 
While practicing at the bar he defended, as an advocate, seven men 
charged with murder, and appeared in many important civil suits. 
After him is named the fastest running horse in America. 

George M. Curtis is one of the most brilliant conversationalists 
in the metropolis. No one can be in his society for an hour with- 
out realizing the breadth of his intellectual grasp, his culture, and 
the warmth and energy of his heart and expression. 

He is an honor to his adopted State, and a lesson to earnest and 
studious young lawyers. Doubtless he will enjoy an enviable uo- 
toilety when he shall attain his meridian splendor. 
30-4 



HENRY 1). COOKE, ESQ. 

GOVERNOR OF DISTIUCT OP COLUMBIA. 

We are indebted to the Washington Sunday Gazette for the following notice : 

f^ EISTEY D. COOKE, of the eminent firm of Jay Cooke 
& Co., Bankers, and President of the First National Bank 
of Washington, beloved as a Christian pliilanthropist, re- 
spected as a valuable and worthy citizen, distinguished as a liberal 
patron of every well-devised plan for the moral and intellectual 
advancement of the residents of this district, and ever prominent 
in advancing every movement having for its purpose the perma- 
nence and prosperity of the National Capital, was born November 
23d, 1826, in the town of Sandusky, Ohio. His distinguished 
father, the Hon. Elutheros Cooke, was one of the original settlers 
of that section of the State, and for many years one of its most 
prominent and influential citizens, and an early and efficient advo- 
cate of all enterprises looking to internal improvements, especially 
in the perfection of plans and projects for building canals and rail- 
roads. In connection with Ex-President William Henry Harrison, 
the Hon. Elutheros Cook organized the first railroad company, and 
constructed the first thirty miles of railroad ever built west of 
Schenectady, N. Y., or the Alleghany Mountains. This wa-s the 
third railroad started in the United States, and it now constitutes a 
part of a continuous line between Cincinnati and Sandusky, and is 
known as the Cincinnati, Dayton and Sandusky Railroad. 

Mr. Cooke's father was also one of the ablest lawyers in the State 
of Ohio, pre-eminent as an advocate, and remarkable for his uni- 
form success before a jury. His fame was such that he was fre- 
305 



2 HKNKV11.00OKK,E8Q. 

<[uently called to the assistance of clients living in the adjoiniu"; 
States of Indiana and Kentucky. He also enjoyed the rare and 
(listingnitilied lionor of being admitted to full practice in the courts 
of Montreal and Quebec. During his public life he was a member 
of both branches of tlie Lcgldlature of the State of Ohi(j, a member 
of Congress from Ohio, and, as the colleague of Corwin,- Stansbury, 
and other eminent men of Ohio, he held high rank as their peer. 
As a gentleman of ample i-esources, he afforded to his children the 
means of a liberal education, of which the subject of this sketch 
tiiily availed himself. He entered Alleghany College, at Meadville, 
Pennsylvania, in the winter of 1839-40, and remained there two 
years, and then finished his'collegiate course at Transylvania Uni- 
veraity, Kentucky, graduating and taking the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts in August, 1854. He graduated with the first honoi's of his 
class, one embracing names since distinguished as soldiers and states- 
men. 

Mr. Cooke, after graduating, entered the law office of his brother, 
Pitt Cooke, of the firm of Beecher & Cooke. He continued his 
legal studies in the city of Philadelphia, and while there he was a 
frequent contributor to the literary jom-nals and magazines of the 
day, and a contemporary friend of the brilliant and much lamented 
Joseph 0. Neal, remembered as the author of the celebrated Char- 
coal Sketches, and other popular works. 

In 1846-7, Mr. Cooke's health being somewhat impaired by 
severe study and close application, he accepted a position in the 
consular office of his brother-in-law, the Hon. William G. Morehead, 
then United States Consul, under the administration of President 
Polk, at Valparaiso, Chili. Before sailing from Baltimore, Mr. 
Cooke engaged to correspond regularly with the United States 
Gazette, then edited by Hon. Jos. R. Chandler, and with tlie 
(Joiirier and Enquirer, then under the editorial management of the 
late Hon. Henry J. Raymond, and owned by General James Wat- 
son Webb. Correspondence from that quarter of the world was at 
that time very rare, and the pecuniary considerations extended to 
30G 



H E N K Y 1). C < 1 O K K , B 8 Q . 8 

Mr. Cooke were of the most liberal natui-e. In this connection, as 
sabsequent events will show, he was enabled to render the country 
an important service. While the barque Ilortensia, in which Mr. 
Cooke had sailed, was off the Bermudas, it encountered a violent 
huiTicane, was thrown on her beam ends, and with her masts car- 
ried away, and her bulwarks stove in, was in a leaky and sinking 
condition. The buoyant nature of her cargo, however, saved her 
from sinking, and on the subsidence of the storm, which had lasted 
for four or five days, jury-masts were rigged, and being in the track 
of the North-east Trade "Winds, the ship carried sail enough to run 
before the " Trades," which blew the vessel in the direction of the 
Windward Islands, forming the northern boundary of the Carribeaii 
Sea. They attempted to make the Island of Santa Cruz, but the 
difficulty of managing the vessel prevented this, but they succeeded 
in entering the harbor of the Swedish Island of St. Thomas. Here 
Mr. Cooke was detained over a month before securing a vessel in 
which to leave the island. 

But his active and practical mind did not remain unemployed. 
Hon. David Naar, of New Jersey, was then our commercial agent 
at St. Thomas. To Mr. Cooke he suggested the idea of a line of 
steamers, to run directly from New York to Chagres, thence across 
the Isthmus up to California and Oregon. Mr. Cooke, fully compre- 
hending the value and importance of these suggestions, gathered in 
their support many statistics, and through the medium of his cor- 
respondence with the United States Gazette and the New York 
Cornier a/nd Enquirer, he made the idea so feasible and attractive 
as to arrest the attention of the entire country. At the same time, 
and subsequently, these valuable facts and figures were embodied in 
his oflScial dispatches from the Consular Office of Mr. Morehead, at 
Valparaiso, to the Department of State. The strong and favorable 
impression made by these dispatches upon the mind of ex-President 
Buchanan, then Secretary of State, secured for the project his un- 
qualified endorsement, and in the next message of Mr. Polk, then 
President of the United States, to Congress, he mentinned ibis pr.. 
307 



i H E N H Y D . O O K K , K 8 Q . 

ject for favorable consideration. Congress, entertaining the same 
views, acted promptly in the matter, and in a little over two years 
from the date of the original suggestion a steam frigate was built, 
and a line of steamei-s were in actual operation from I^ew York to 
San Francisco, under the auspices of the Pacific Mail Steam-ship 
Company, of which Howland and Aspinwall were the leading and 
controlling spirits. 

This, it will be recollected, was during the war with Mexico. 

In the summer of 1847, Mr. Cooke, as supercargo, visited Cali- 
fornia in charge of a ship laden with supplies for the United States 
army, and with general merchandize, and during tlie two or three 
succeeding years he devoted himself entirely to commercial pursuits, 
being engaged in trading between San Francisco and South Ameri- 
can ports. The general knowledge possessed by Mr. Cooke, and 
his power of application in turning this knowledge to the best 
account, is well illustrated by the fact, for one voyage, being unable 
to procure a comi^etent ship-master, he successfully navigated the 
vessel himself 

During the progress of Mr. Cooke's mercantile business on the 
Pacific coast, finding difficulty in procuring transportation for his 
merchandize, he purchased the Kamahamalm, a fore-top sail 
schooner, for his use, and took out the first register ever issued to an 
American vessel on the Pacific coast. 

A most interesting incident in the early California life of Henry 
D. Cooke, connects him with the history of the first rich specimens 
of gold that were sent to the IJnited States, in 1848. He was at 
Monterey, in his schooner, the Kamahamaha, unable to secure a 
captain and crew for her, because of the attractive power of the 
gold-mines, which had drawn thither the few settlers and others 
then temporarily .sojourning in that distant laud. The American 
Consul (Mr. Larkin), had brought from the mines the first beautiful 
specimen of gold, and conceived the plan of sending it at once to 
"Washington, as a present to the then Secretary of State, James 
Buchanan, in order that the Government might form some idea of 



HENRY D. OOOKE, ESQ. 5 

Lbe value of the rich possessions it had just acquired by treaty or 
purchase, at the couchision of the Mexican war. Prompted bv 
laudable ambition, Mr. Cooke received from the consul the lump of 
precious metal, witb letters and reports directed to and prepare'l 
for the Secretary of State, and taking the command and iiavigatioi: 
of the schooner into his own hands, with an insufficient crew, he 
set sail on the waters of the great Paciiic for a port on the coast of 
Mexico, at which he arrived in safety, and succeeded in forwarding 
to Washington the first specimen of California gold that I'eached 
the National Capital after the discovery of gold in California, in 
May, 1848. 

In commercial entei-prises Mr. Cooke was very prosperous, and, 
toward the close of 1849, he returned to the Atlantic States, and 
married in TJtica, New York, his present wife, the daughter of Dr. 
Erastus Humplireys, an eminent physician of that city. Mrs. 
Cooke, sharing the honors won by the high character, rectitude, and 
business tact of her distinguished husband, has filled her exalted, 
social position with great dignity and grace, and, governed by pro- 
found religious convictions of right and duty, she has made her 
residence a temple of peace and the home of a refined and elegant 
hospitality ; while to the worthy poor she has been a munificent 
and generous benefactress. 

After the acquisition of a large fortune by steady industry and 
uniform success, Mr. Cooke's entire means were swept away by 
losses occasioned by the terrible fires that occurred in San Fran- 
cisco, and incidental business relations with other sufferers. Al- 
though forced to commence again from the foundation, he did so 
with a cheerful heart, and without the slightest discoui'agement. 
He established himself in Philadelphia, assuming charge of the 
financial department of the North Americcm and United States 
Gazette, then edited and controlled brthe Hon. Morton McMichael. 
and recently Mayor of the city of Philadelphia. Having tendered 
to liim increased pecuniary facilities from Ohio, to take charge of 
the Sandvshj Gazette, one of the leadmg dailies of that St;it<.', and 
309 



E N K T n . C O O J 



with the view principally of advocating certain railroad enterprises, 
Mr. Cuoke gave up his position in Philadelphia, and removed to 
Sandusky. His family had a deep interest in the Michigan, South- 
em, and the Cleveland and Toledo Eailroad, and his advocacy of 
these vast undertakings proved a great success. 

While editing the Sandusky Ifegister, Mr. Cooke was chosen one 
if the Presidential electoi-s for General Fremont, and his popularity 
was such with all classes that in the election he largely lead his 
ticket. From that time he became a prominent leader in the Ee- 
publican party, and after repeated solicitations to do so, he accepted 
the care, control and editorial management of the Ohio State Jour- 
nal, the State organ of the party in Ohio, and a leading journal of 
the West. Under his management the journal was pecuniarily and 
politically a success. 

When Congress divided the duties of Printer and Binder, the 
position of Binder for Congress was tendered to and accepted by 
Mr. Cooke, and its duties were faithfully and acceiitably performed. 
As Air. Cooke had not intended to remain permanently iu journal- 
ism, he accepted a position iu 1861, in the Banking House of Jay 
Cooke, & Co., of which his brother was the senior member, 
and in connection with that able financier, Mr. Fahnestock, took 
charge of the banking house of that firm in the city of Wash- 
ington. 

In the summer of 1804 Mr. Cooke went abroad. Whilst in Eu- 
rope he visited the different financial centres, and was successful in 
his efforts to enlist the efforts of bankers and capitalists in the loans 
of the United States, which were then being largely and enthusias- 
tically subscrihed for by our citizens, through the energetic and 
successful agency of Jay Cooke, the able and popular financier and 
banker. The influence and information communicated through Mr. 
Henry D. Cooke went very far towaids determining the favorable 
coiisideratiim which was subsequently given to his practical sugges- 
tions, and American bonds became popular, thereby seeming tin- 
confidence and a ready market in the financial and commercial 
310 



HE.NKYD. COOKE, ESQ. t 

marts, and prompt sales among the moneyed men and the masses of 
the people of the Old World. 

From this epoch in the active and useful career of Henry D. 
Cooke np to the present time, all the residents of the District of' 
Columbia are perfectly familiar. They look back upon the associa- 
tjon here with many pleasant recoUections of his noble ^orks. his 
generous deeds as a citizen, and his splendid charities. His life has 
been so even, so just, so consistent with every high sentiment of 
Christianity, patriotism, and honor, that he has secured the genuine 
respect of the community, the unfaltering devotion of friends, and 
the constant prayers of the thoughtful and the good. 

By this great moral achievement, rather than in his brilliant suc- 
cess as one of the confidential and principal agents of the Govern- 
ment in speedily effecting the gigantic war loan ; rather than in his 
skill and enterprise in pushing forward to rapid completion the 
Washington and Georgeto^vn Passenger Kailway, and his adminis- 
tration of the road as its first president ; rather than in his organi- 
zation and vice-presidency of the powerful National Life Insm-ance 
Company, chartered iu 1868; rather than in his daily control of 
millions of his own, and millions of the fmids of other people, the 
sterling quaHties of the mind and character of Mr. Cooke are re- 
vealed, 

Monday, the 27th day of February, 1871, Hem-y D. Cooke was 
appointed by the President of the United States, Governor of the 
District of Columbia, and this appointment was unanimously con- 
firmed by the Senate, without reference to a committee. Action of 
this nature is the highest and most flattering expression of esteem 
and confidence the Senate can make, and we think it is the first 
time m the history of nominations to that body, unless one of its 
own number. In this case the office sought the man, soraethino- in 
these days of moral and political obliquity. It is a remarkable 
fact, and in this biographical sketch it should be recorded that 
the elevation of Mr. Cooke to tliis office gives miiversal satisfac- 
tion. 

311 



8 II K N K V 1) . C <) O K E , K 8 y . 

Tlio Sunday Gazette of March 5t!i, 1871, lefei-s to Gov. Oooke in 
the following coiuplimentaiy editorial ; 

" Our readers will feel gratified to-day in reading the interesting 
biographical sketch of tiie lion. Henry D. Cooke, the first Gov- 
ernor of the District of Columbia. It has ever been the policy of 
tlie Sunday Gazette to commend, without distinction of party, 
public men and public acts that have the endorsement of the people, 
and in thio connection we sincerely extend to the President of the 
United States the sincerest congratulations of this community upon 
his wisdom and his discretion in making this eminently judicioas 
appointment. 

" With a thorough, conscientious regard for the best, the perma- 
nent, the vital interests of this District, Governor Cooke will pro- 
ceed to the discharge of his diiBcult and delicate duties. Let him 
be handsomely and cordially supported." 

In his religious sentiments Mr. Cooke is a devoted Episcopalian. 
Grace Church, Georgetown, Rev. J. Eastman Brown, Rector, was 
built and presented for free use by Mr. Cooke. His family are reg- 
ular communicants at St. John's Episcopal Cliurch, Rev. A. B. 
Atkins, Rector. To Mr. Cooke the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation of this city are mainly indebted for their elegant building 
on Ninth and D Streets, whose beautiful and imposing architectui-e 
will long be a pride of the city. We should be glad to dwell for a 
long time upon the many pleasant incidents and peculiar traits per- 
sonally known to us in the life and character of Mr. Cooke, and to 
draw from them those useful lessons for the young, which they so 
ahuiidantly aflford, but our limits in this sketch hardly permit it. 
His whole life, however, reveals the fact that he regards his business 
prosperity as a dispensation of an All-wise Being, and that he has 
not been made proud by wealth, nor been depressed by misfortune ; 
and that with his mind and heart constantly fixed on the Infinite 
Source of all good, he has obeyed the admonition, " Seek yk first 

TUK KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS." 
812 





tTl 



% 



^^-i^ 




THOS. BARBOUR BRYAN, 

'HO stands prominent among the young and representa- 
tive men of the West, owes his pruud position not so much 
to the adventitious circumstances of birth, as to the posses- 
sion and cultivation of sucli qualities as ensure respect and 
success. 

Bom in Alexandria, Va., Dec. 22, 1828, uf most honorable though 
not wealthy parentage, Mr. Bryan early learned the lesson of self- 
reliance. He graduated in the law department of Harvard Uni- 
versity in 1848, where, to a considerable extent, his educational ex- 
penses were defrayed by the use of his pen in contributing both 
original and translated matter to the K^orthern press, and in editing 
a grammar in the German tongue, which became deservedly popu- 
lar, and is still published by Appleton & Co. 

On leaving Cambridge Mr. Bryan entered upon the practice of his 
profession, soon wou success and formed, though still quite young, a 
full partnership with Judge Samuel Hart, then an eminent jurist at 
the Cincinnati bar. About that time he married, and two years sub- 
sequently was tempted to Chicago — the then rising star among 
Western cities — the very field in which to call into play and develop 
Mr. Bryan's peculiar talents and qualities of head and heart. 

We find in a recent work written and published during Mr. Bry- 
an's absence iu Europe, a biographical sketch, from which we make 
the following extract : " Mr. Bryan, it is safe to say, has more warn, 
personal friends than any other prominent citizen of Chicago. From 
the time of his first arrival here, he has been a leader in all good 
works — an ever liberal friend of the poor, favorable to every public 
enterprise that was calculated to benefit the city, and ensure the 
313 



MAS UAEl 



welfjiro' of the coiuiminity. A cliaiiipion of progress, a pati-on ot 
art and popular eduaition, and an exemplar of human refinement 
and Christian magnanimity and charity, he combines in hiniseii' 
those noble and commendable qualities of heart and soul which make 
up tlie ti-ue ' Christian gentleman.' " 

But it was chiefly during the great rebellion that Mr. Bryan at- 
tained prominence as a patriot and an orator. " From the first boom 
of Fort Sumter's guns," says another publication, " ho has been for 
his country Jlrsi, last, always, and has contributed the utmt)st efforts 
of mind and means to that great cause the ' Union, one and indiv- 
isible.' 

Mr. Bryan was chosen to deliver the welcome address to Douglas 
in behalf of all pai-ties in Chicago, on tlie occasion of the great ova- 
tion to that statesman, on his return from Washington, after his noble 
declarations of support to President Lincoln in the eftbrt to enforce 
obedience to the Constitution and the laws of the Union. This was 
the last public reception extended to Douglas, as he died within a 
month afterward, and both the address to the Senator and his utter- 
ances in response, were conceived in the spii-it of loftiest patriotism. 

Mr. Bryan's executive talent has been practically shown in various 
enterprises in Chicago, both public and private, as in the instance of 
that beautiful rural cemetery " Graceland," established by him — the 
Soldiei-s' Home which be was mainly instrumental in founding, and 
of which he is President— the last great Sanitary Fair of which he 
was also the etKcient executive officer, and of many other kindred 
and successful undertakings. 

Since Jlr. Bryan's return from Europe, whore he passed several 
years, he has resided mainly in Washington, retaining, however, his 
summer residence near Chicago, the less rigorous climate of the for- 
mer city being one of its chief attractions. 

At the election in Illinois, in 1869, for the State Constitutional 
Convention, (held in Mr. Bryan's absence from the State and entire- 
ly without his knowledge) he was declared by the Board of Can- 
va.-^erb dulv elected, and a commission was accordingly issued to 
314 



THOMASBAEBO0R BRYAN. 3 

him by the Governor, but upoQ learning that, in the exciting cam- 
paign which had been hold, the vote had been very close, (mere local 
questions, neither personal nor political considerations being in- 
volved,) and that his election resulted from the accident of cei-tain 
irregidarities in the votes for the other candidate, he promptly de- 
clined to accept a seat in the Convention, concluding his letter of 
declination with this declaration : 

"I know full well that this decision will be subject to the animad- 
version of some of my constituents and friends, whose zeal is ardent- 
ly enlisted in the present county controversy ; but I insist that there 
ought to be honesty even in politics, and my course would be pre- 
cisely the same were the position surrendered ten times as exalted. 

Let the right prevail. 

Washington, D. C, Nov. 25, 1869. Tnos. E. Bkyan. 

Among the many published speeches of Mr. Bryan delivered in the 
West, none perhaps has elicited more general and eulogistic notice 
of the press, than his address to the j-egiment of the Young Men's 
Christian Association, when departing for the war, arid as its spirit 
and counsel are admirable for the guidance generally of young men, 
for whose stimulus to action and honorable eft'ort this work L 
largely designed, we append the following extract with the intro- 
ductory words of the paper from which we quote : 

TKOTHI-UL J^D BEAUTIFUL VVOKUS. 

"Below we give an extract from the remarks made by Hon. T B. 
Bryan, to a regiment just departing for the lield. They ought to 
be stamped indelibly upon the tnind of every soldier. They would 
become sharp swords of truth standing at the gateway of every on.'s 
Eden, guarding it with zealous care,' and directing the true wayof life 

"Oi all the strength and i.npetus given to the cause by Mr Bryan 
-which has been well nigh all his strength and time and princely 
of Ins means, since the war begun-he has done the cause no greater 
SI.-) 



j;..o(l lliiui now, In ulloriiif? tluw hoIon of wiiniiii^'. Tliov aro on 
lirr oi" trutli, uiul aro uppivciiilcil Iiooiiuho ho much (loiiiandod. 
Vorilv. Iho friond ..I'tlio soldior will lu- iv.m«ndu«ivd l.y Ini.i not tli.- 
loiw for tliiH I'liidinjj: 

"' Afit>rs(>voriil_voiiisof diiilv intcroouiw w ilh .soldioi^, in wlioni ii> 
II liodv I i>nli'itiiin tlio Hvoliost iiiloivst, I uiny, porliaiw, at* a follow- 
townMnan, wlio it* siu>ciidlv jiroud of _v.>u, and of all Cljiicusi'o's nolilo 
t-onw ill llio aiinv, tie iiidnlj;i<d in a word or two of all'oi'lioiiaU' mond 
waniinj;'. Tlio most of vou miv for llio lirst tiino about to In- inili;il 
(-d inio llu- Mivslcric-i of war. Kcsolvo inadvaiu-o (liiit it sliidl not 
provo to vou U ticliool of vico. Show to tlioso wlioso oowurdii'c or 
Iroaolu'ry wouiil fain liavo dissuadod you fnun onlistiu}^, tlinl in doii 
niny; llio blun t'oat. vou do not dolf tlio j>vntloinan. Kocp Ihc li|» 
]>uro, that no hlasplioniv jjo orr, nor viio wliiskov in. llsi> a.^; iiuudi 
pow(it>r a« vou ploat^o ajjainst the om'inv, hut do not .-ipout liri' and 
liriiiistono aiiioiijj vour iVionds. Wlu-n liio slonuioh is disi>anod tlic 
hn-alli is oll'on.sivo; lot nol llu' I'liJinu-tor of your spoocli indiciito 
foiiliU'ss of lu'jirt. 'Hard taok ' niiiv nol ho luxurioiH diet, hut a 
1110S8 of iMiivos and \ iilnarilv is inliIli|^'l^ moro unwliolcsonio, ami lo 
all hut vitiutod appotilos, i;iv;illv moii' iini>alalalili', St.ition a son 
linol ahout llio oil.'idol oi' voiir virtiio, and lot nol lioonliousnoss ho 
\-i>ur i-anip diviuilv. Konionihor that oouraj^o is not a quality of 
niushr>K)ui jjiowtli, and that j^idlinoss is iho suivst antidote to divud 
of homhs and bullots. Lot virtuo, thoroforo, ho your uioriiing star, 
and o\ou amid tlio gloaiu of swords il will shino bonijjiiaully upon 
\ oil. rliooso cousoionoo as your safost i-ounsollor, and uovor ho doaf 
lo its 'still, small voioo,' ovon amid tlio olaiia; of arms and tlio Ihiin- 
doi-s of lu-lillory. If ohodiouoo to olHoors ho onjoinod sis a just lo- 
(piiivniont of military disoiplino, how inliniloly more imporativo 
should ho obodioiu-o lo iho holiosis of llim who lioldoth supivnio 
ooniinand, as Iho Lord o( Hosts. Koposo a lovinjj; oonlidonoo in 
Him, for in His hand is tho lliivad of your livos— lo bo at His plo.-uf 
ui-o tlron-^lhonod or out in twtdn. In wlialovor oonlliols you may 
U' onjta^'od, ronionihor always that iho yroatost of all t.rium]<lis i- 



tho viot,..ry ov„r Hi.., Il .( |„-i,.,.|,M. ,.f „|| ,.„i„s in ll... ;^.„i„ „,- 

oloniiil ItlosHodiiosrt.' " 

Wore. tl.OriO IK.l.l., mM.li.......lH ,.,oi-o -n..„n,lly i..,.„l,.„l..,l l.y ,.,..• 

luiblici Bi.o.iI«.rrt, .i..,| ,il,,..,v,.,| l,v Ij.o yonwff „„,I, ..l' ||,„ |,„„|, (,', 1,,,^ 
mu.v oni.o.., „.i,..|,( |„, .,p,,li,..Ml,ln,iju.l^.,.,o„l, lil<., iIh.I .• n|,.,| I,,, 

"" •■' "'•'''■'• "'■ ""• ^"i".r''i nni.iMHk.^rdi, ii. u.ns,, w.,..!.: -or m,. 

Hi'.Vai. il 1m l.:u.,l|_y ,„r,v.H.i.-.y lo .spcik. 'V\u>ra is l,l.„ ..,„,.,, ,u,.| !.„ /« 
a n.a.i „« aver. Look nt him, Honitini/.o hi... doKol.y, .,.'il'i<mll.y, in a 

<'"llll-liM(li..«', ll.lVV-l>iokillir H|,i.-i|, if vo.l Wirth. ()„ ('|„. ,,,a,r,./„|' hje, 

.■N-, ..oM,. s,.,.(l,.sH, ,...iv,.l,. lil,, „,. .l.,|y .y.M. (.. ,„,;„, o,a a «i,.^.l„ 

f^la.l. „.• I.I.M.I.ril.. lli,s |.,,Ki(i,,.l ,IK ,1 |, 111, 11,; „„i„ irt II,.. ..,l(,.|-,l| H.^ 
''"""•■'''""'«'•""'""""' '•"nHiH(,.,.l ,lrV,.l„|.,uo.,(, of (|,H( woll luiou., 

clia.'fictrr r.,.- Iio..,,.-, i.ilc-ril'.V, n.id inii..lv diMUJij." 

;ii7 




^^ '^ ^^;07-^^/S/S^ 



WALTEIi L. LIVING STO:^. 

fi* F the many families Mhose names are conspicuous in the 
annals of the State of New York, there are none more dis- 
tinguished than that of the Livingstons. It ranlcswith the 
Washingtons, Fairfaxes, Randolphs, Adamses, Masons, and others 
which held prominent positions in Colonial days, and is remarkable 
for the number of distinguished men it has produced. The founder 
of the American family was Eobert Livingston, first Lord of the 
Manor of Livingston, who emigrated to this country from Scotland, 
in 1C72. He received a royal patent for a large tract of land on the 
Hudson, extending in the interior a distance of twenty or thirty 
miles. In the colony he held many important positions under the 
crown. Among his descendants, whose names are familiar to eveiy 
student of our history, were the celebrated chancellor, Robert R. 
Livingston, one of the Committee for drawing up the Declaration 
of Independence ; William, who was Governor of New Jersey twen- 
ty-six years ; and Edward, who became a Senator in Congress, Sec- 
retary of State, and Minister to France. 

The subject of this sketch, is a descendant of Robert, and the 
second son of Henry TV. Livingston, and of Caroline Depau, one 
of the daughters of Francis Depau, who was a distinguished mer- 
chant of New York City in his day. On his mother's side, he is a 
great-grandson of Admiral Count de Grasse, who commanded tho 
French fleet that contributed so much to the cause of the Colonists, 
during the revolutionary war, and whose defeat of the English fleet 
off the coast of Virginia enabled Washington to completely hem in 
the British forces, under Lord Comwallis, and finally compel its 
surrender. For his services during the Revolution, Count de Grasse 
319 



■WALTEE L. LIVI>'GSTOS. 



received from Congress a special vote of thanks, and a present of two 
field pieces of ordnance. 

Walter L. Livingston, the gentleman whose name heads this arti- 
cle, was born in the City of l^ew Tork, on Broadway, near Franklin 
Street, on the 21st day of December, 1830. The family were then 
residing in the conntry, and at his father's residence in Colombia 
Connty he spent the earliest years of his childhood. Here his father 
owned a large part of the tract of land, famous in onr history as the old 
Livingston Manor. While a child, he was taken to Europe by his pa- 
rents, and there he was principally educated — partly at the Jesuit 
College at Fribourg, in Switzerland, and partly at the College of 
Juilly, near Paris. To his ancestry on his mother's side is to be at- 
tributed his being a member of the Catholic Church, his father's 
family being Episcopalian. 

In his youth he made several trips to and from Europe, and short- 
ly after lus final return home, after the completion of his studies, he 
determined to embrace the profession of the law. Accordingly, he 
entered the office of the Hon. Francis B. Cutting, and remained there 
antil he became a student in the law offices of Messi-s. Sutherland 
and Monell, both of whom are now judges — Sutherland of the Su- 
preme Court of jSTew York, and MoneU of the Superior Court of the 
same State. Under these gentlemen he finislied his legal course, 
and was in due time admitted to practice. " In May, 1852, soon after 
his admission, he opened a law office at Xo. 72 "Wall Street, and it 
was there that Sigismund Kauffman, who is now widely knoAvn at 
the bar and in politics, studied law with him. Mr. Livingston en- 
countered the usual obstacles which young practitioners meet with 
on the threshold of their careei-s ; for althouglLhe possessed a large 
and influential cii'cle of acquaintances in New Tork, professional 
business was secured only by labor and perseverance. 

In 1857, he manied Miss Coster, the eldest daughter of "Washing- v 

ton Coster, of Jfew York City, and four years later, he moved with 

liis family to Brooklyn, where, at 92 Hewes Street, he has ever 

since resided. Before he had been long in the^city, the active part 

320 



WALTEEI, .LIVINGSTON. 3 

he took in politics made him prominent and popular, and for a 
number of years he was an inflLiential member of the Democratic 
General Committee of Kings County. He was not, however, an as- 
pirant to office ; but in 1SG7, the very marked compliment to his 
legal abilities was paid him, in his nomination as one of tiie four 
candidates of the Democracy from his Senatorial District to the 
Constitutional Convention of the State of ISTew York. He was, with 
his three colleagues elected bj a handsome majority. One of the 
candidates on the opposing ticket was the Rev. Henry Ward Beech- 
er, for whose election great efforts were made, the occasion being his 
fij-st candidature for pubhc office. 

The record of the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention 
shows that Mr. Livingston took an active and important part in the 
various measures submitted. He joined in the debates on the judi- 
ciary article, in relation to the powers of the Legislature ; on the 
' article relating to the bill of rights ; on the question of suffrage, etc. 
He was a member of the Special Committee on the Adulteration and 
Sale of Spirituous Liquors, and also a member of the Committee on 
Cliai'ities. He introduced among others a resolution providing that 
all laws relating to the elective franchise should be uniform through- 
out the State, which was re]3orted from the Committee on Suffrage 
by the Chairman, Horace Greeley. He also secured the passage of 
a resolution prohibiting the construction of a railroad within any 
town or incorporated village without the consent of the local au- 
thorities, and without the consent of the owners of at least one-third 
(in \-alue) of the property affected ; and in case the consent of such 
propei-ty owners could not be obtained, the authority of the General 
Term of the Supreme Court of the district in which the road was 
to be located was declared necessaiy — the consent and authority to 
be obtained in such manner as the Legislatiu-e should provide, by a 
genei'al law. 

"WTien the Committee on the Adulteration and Sale of Spirituous 
Liquors submitted their report, they were found to be equally di- 
vided, the Republican members of it reported in favor of conferring 
321 



4 W A LTEKI.. LIVINGSTON. 

upon the Legislature authority to pass laws proliibiting the sale of 
intoxicating liquors, while the Democratic members reported in 
favor of proliibiting the Legislature from passing any law forbiding 
the manufacture and sale of distilled and fermented liquors and 
•wines, but permitting it to regulate the traffic by laws having uni- 
form operation throughout the State. On this question Mr. Living- 
ston sided with his Democratic colleagues ; and when tlie matter was 
brought before the Convention, he delivered an able speech upon it. 
The subject was one of great importance to the people of the Metro- 
politan City of New York, not only as involving their commercial 
interests, but also as affecting long established rights and privileges. 
Although a friend of the temperance cause, Mr. Livingston opposed 
everything in sumptuary legislation, believing that it was harsh and 
oppressive, without attaining its object. In the speech referred to, 
he said : 

" Me. President : — I trust that the Convention will reconsider the 
vote by which the article recommended in the report printed as that of 
the majority of the Committee on the Sale of Liquors was rejected, and 
that upon further reflection, the article itself will be adopted, for tlie 
following reasons, which I will state as briefly as possible. In my 
opinion, tlie Legislature should be denied the right to prohibit abso- 
lutely the manufacture or sale of wines and liquors, because such 
prohibition violates all the principles of our system of government 
and of sound legislation, and however much we may condemn the 
vice of intoxication, however desirous we may be to contribute to its 
suppression by all proper and legitimate means, we should be unwil- 
ling to attain that end at a Eacrifice of a cardinal principle of justice 
and liberty. In this coimtry, the law should leave to the individual 
all the liberty, not strictly inconsistent with the good order and safe- 
ty of society. * * * It is a well established principle of good 
government, that ' laws should never be passed forbidding acts 
which, in the opinion of a large proportion of the educated members 
of the community, are in themselves innocent.' Now, it will not be 
seriously claimed, that the manufacture or sale of wine and liquor, 



WALTEE L. LIVINGSTON. 5 

under proper regulations, is immoral. These articles enter largely 
into the commerce of the world ; they ai'e recognized as the legiti- 
mate subject of traffic by the laws of the United States. Their use 
as a beverage has been sanctioned, from time immemorial, by the 
practice of all civilized nations, and so far at least as wine is con- 
cerned, by the teachings of the Holy Scriptures." 

Continuing, Mr. Livingston referred to a case recited by Wendell 
Phillipps, of a man in Maine, who, though trying to be a disciple of 
temperance, could not resist the temptation of getting liquor ; where- 
upon Ills friends, under the prohibitory law, procured a writ and 
closed up all the liquor shops in the town. " I cannot, for one, sub- 
scribe to the soundness of such a principle of legislation." After 
quoting from several authorities, to prove that tiie prohibition of the 
sale of liquor is, to use the language of John Stuart Mill, a " gross 
usurpation upon the liberty of private life," he went on : 

" It is quite trae, however, that the sale of liquor, under certain 
circumstances, may become a wrong ; such, for instance, as the sale 
of strong drinks to a child, or to a person known to be an habitual 
drunkard, and I am not contending that the Legislature should not 
have the power to prohibit such sales ; on the contrary, the proposed 
article gives that right to the Legislature. But I do insist that the 
existence of sucb abuses is no more an argument in favor of the ab- 
solute prohibition of the sale of liquor, than is the fact that tobacco 
is frequently sold to children of tender years an argument in favor 
of the prohibition of the sale of that article. But it is said that the 
Legislature should not be restrained on this subject, because it rep- 
resents the popular will, and therefore will not pass a prohibitory- 
law unless the majority of tlie people demand it. This argument 
assumes that the minority have no rights which the majority are 
bound to respect, and might with equal force be applied to the 
other numerous restrictions upon the powers of the Legislature to 
be found in other parts of the Constitution. 

" There is no provision made for submitting the law to the direct 
vote of the people, or for requiring that it should be passed at two 
323 



r. WALTEBL. LIVINGSTON. 

successive sessions of tho Lcgislatiu-o before it shall become opera 
tive, and without some such chock, tho experience of the past teaches 
us that n mere inipulse of the people may becomo the law of the 
land. Tho distinguished Chairman of tiie Committee also tells us, 
in his report, that ' this power (of prohibition) in the hands of the 
Losjislature can only be exoivised when the people shall direct, by 
sm-h an expivssion of popular will .as shall leave no doubt of the duty 
of the servant, that popular will suggests the law and demands its eu- 
forcouicnt.' And he then adds, with more confidence, I confess, 
than I have in the readiness of tho minority to yield to the wishes 
of the majority, however exacting and unjust: 'It is the people who 
will then act, and tho people are the government to which every 
good citizen will yield a pleasant obedionoo.' Docs ray distinguished 
friend consider that this power will bo any tho more Kife in the 
hands of tho Legislature, bec;\uso it can only be exorcised at the 
command of the majority ? If, in his opinion, tho will of tho people 
should be respected on all occasions, why did he not raise his elo- 
quent voice in condenmation of tho article on the bill of rights, 
which was discussed in this Convention immediately previous to the 
consideration of his own ropart, and in which wo find almost .as 
many chocks upon tho powers of tho Legislature as there are sections 
in the article ? M. de Tocquevlllo says, in his work on democracy in 
America, ' I regaixl as impious and detestable tho maxim that in 
mattei-s of government the majority of a people have the right to do 
everything.' And a little further on, he says : ' What then is a ma- 
jority, taken collectively, but an individual having opinions, and 
most often interests, opposed to another individual called the minor- 
ity. If, then, you admit that a man invested with unlimited power 
can abuse it to the injury of his advers:U'ios, why do you not admit 
the si\me thing in regani to a m.ajority. In coming togetlier, have 
men cluuiged their nature t Have they become more patient under 
prtjvocation, in becoming stronger? For my part, I cannot believe 
it, and the power to do everything, which I refuse to a single indi- 
ndual. T will never give to a number of them.' « « * * < And 
324 



WALTER L. LIVINGSTON. 7 

what 19 the most repulsive to'me in America, h not the extromo lib- 
erty that prevails there, but the little security to be found against 
tyranny.' What I now ask of tliis Convention, is to hold the shield 
of the Constitution over the minority, in order to protect it against 
the tyranny of the majority, on this subject of total abstinence. The 
article now under discussion does not propose to strip the majority 
of any of its just riglits. It leaves to the Legislature full authority 
to suppress the abuse, witliout prohibiting the use, of intoxicating 
bwerages, and in my judgment, this is all the power that the Legis- 
lature should properly exorcise over the subject, for it is the abuse 
alone that is reprehen.sible. But it is said that this concession to the 
Legislature of the right to regulate the sale of liquor grants the 
whole argument in favor of total prohibition. Says Wendell Phil- 
lipps: 'Governor Andrews gi-ants the whole argument, when he 
talks license, for he grants that society has a right to put its hand upon 
drink.' Well, Mr. President, is there no difference between regula- 
tion and prohibition? To my mind the distinction is marked; in 
fact, those two words convey ideas totally inconsistent with each 
other. Prohibition destroys the right to sell liquor, and as a neces- 
sary consequence, to a great extent, the right to use it as a bevera^'e ; 
while regulation, on the contrary, implies the existence of the right 
both to sell and to use it, for it is the sale and the use of that article 
tliat is to be the subject of regulation. How, then, can it be said 
that the concession to the Legislature of a power which recognizes 
the right to do a certain thing, is identical in principle with the grant 
of authority to prohibit and to destroy altogether such right ? As well 
might it be argued that the right to license hotel keepers implies the 
authority to shut up all the hotels in the State, or that the right to 
license mamages, in those countries where it exists, admits the pow- 
er to prohibit matrimony. 

" Butchers, for instance, are licensed to sell meat. Is not that a 
substance both useful and healthful? Is it not an article which in- 
volves no harm and no danger? Many other innocent and harmless 
occupations cannot be pursued without a license. Our Revised Stat- 
32J 



a WAL TKK L. I, 1 V 1 NO STUN. 

ntos prohibit anv poreon from travelling from pluoo to plaoo, within 
this State, f >r the piirpo.*o i>f ojirrying, to s-oU or exposing to sale, nuy 
poods, wan^s or merehamliso, of the growth, prodiiee or manutacturo 
of any foreign country, unless ho shall have obtained a license as a 
hawker and }>eddler in the manner thereiu directed. The h\w of 
1S43 authorizes lieelises to keep taverns to bo granted, without in- 
cluding a license to sell strong and spirituous liquoi-s, or wines, or al- 
coholic drinks; and pcj-sons without a license arc prohibited from 
putting up a sign indicating that they keep a tavern, under penalty 
of one dollar and twenty-live cents for every day such sign shall be 
kept up. Many other instances could bo cited if necessary, and I 
roeoUoct having road roceiitly in the newspapers that a man had been 
anvsted in New Haven tor having sold tickets of admission to Mr. 
Dickens* ivadings without lirst having obtained a license to do so. 
That there exists a distinction between regulation and prohibition 
does not admit ot a doubt. 

"Mr. rrosident, I am in lavor of denying to the Legislaturo the 
right to psiss a prohibitory law, because experienco teaches us that 
it w ill remain a dead letter in those localities where is considered by 
its advocates to be most Tioeded. I refer to the cities of the State. 
I fully agixx" with the distinguished Chairman of the Committee 
when he s;\vs : 

" ' In my opinion, laws enacted in advance of public opinion aro 
wor^^ than dead letters ; they countenance disrespect for laws, the 
ol^sovvance of which arc absolutely necessary for the security of life 
and property. All sncocsstul laws are the public nn'nd ; nil salutary 
enactments are the public will ; all attempts at restraint are but cob- 
wolvf against the throbbing impulses of the AnM>rican heart,' 

"But, sir, it is the public opinion of that part of the State whicli 
will be most afiectcd by the operation of the contemplated law that 
should be consulted. The fact that public opinion in the rur.il dis 
tricts is in fovor of a law very nniversjiUy condemned and deemed 
oppressive in the lai^ cities of the State, lends no aid whatever to 
its ciiforoement in those cities. The history of the agitation in Eng- 
S2G 



W A L T r R r, . 1. 1 V I N S T O N . 

land on tliie Kiibject teaches u» the iatc of any measure which is not 
upheld by the moral sentiment of the people affected by it." 

Mr. Livingfiton here gave a brief account of th'j famous attempt 
made in England, in 1736, to prevent the sale of spirituous liquors, 
bcrs favorable to the temperance cause will not object to it, for, at 
most of the temperance meetings which have been recently held, 
resolutions have been passed demanding that the distinction which 
has been made on this subject between the metropolitan dLstrict and 
the rest of the State should be abolished, by extending over the en- 
tire State the excise law now in existence in that district. Nor will 
any objection come from the members representing the cities of the 
State, for whatever distinction has been heretofore made, has always 
been to the disadvantage of their constituents. If there is any oppo- 
sition then to the proposition, it must be limited to the members 
from the rural districts who are not particularly in favor of the tem- 
perance movement ; and I respectfully submit, sir, that it can only 
spring from the fear that the regulations connected with the sale and 
use of liquors, -which they are willing to liave enforced in certain 
parts of the State, will be extended to those localities which they 
represent. Why should any distinction be made on this subject of 
excise between the different parts of the State ? Is there any reason 
why a man who takes over his bar fifty dollars a day in the city of 
New York, should pay a higher license fee than the man whose bar- 
room in a country tavern will yield the same profit? Is there any 
reason why liquors should be sold after twelve o'clock at night in one 
place anymore than in another? Is there any reason why a man 
of bad moral character should be allowed to sell liquor in the coun- 
try and not in the city ? Is there any reason why liquor should not 
be sold to a child, for his own use, or to a habitual drunkard in one 
part of the State, which will not apply to the sale of liquor to such 
persons everywliere throughout the State ? Is there any reason why 
liquor should be sold on Sunday in one part of the State and not in 
another? If there is then no reason why any distinction should bo 
made in any of these respects between the different parts of the 
327 



Stale, wliat possible objection caii there bo to compel the Legislature 
to muko tho law uniform ? It has been urged, however, in answer to 
this proposition, that the means required to enforce tho laws in the 
cities are different from those necessary for the same purpose in the 
and the utter failure that it met with. He then proceeded to de- 
scribe the failures which have attended all efforts at prohibition. 
Qovernor Andrews of Massachusetts had declared that " prohibition 
has really existed in New England only in name." In Sweden, 
where it is forbidden by law to give, and more explicitly to sell, spir- 
ituous liquoi-s to a specified class, drinking, according to Allison, is 
univei-sal. The attempt to enforce totiU abstinence from drink by 
legislation is opposed by some of the most earnest advocates of the 
temperance cause. Mr. Livingston continued as follows : 

" Mr. President, I would not intentionally say anytliing in exten- 
uation of the evils of intoxication; nor would I ever oppose any ef- 
fort to instil the virtue of temperance in the people by religious and 
moral training. I will go further, and say that I should like to see 
the temperance men a little more practical than they are for the suc- 
cess of their own cause. 

" I would be pleased to see them inclined to adopt measures which, 
in my opinion, would promote the cause of temperance without in- 
terfering in the least with the rights of any one, and without violat- 
ing any principle ; such, for instance, as the introduction into gen- 
eral use, at cheap rates, of light wines, which would soon replace, to 
a great extent, the loss agreeable but stronger spirituous liquors ; and 
in this connection, I will state, without fear of contradiction, that 
the introduction of lager beer in this country by our German popu- 
lation has proved a great benefit to the cause of temperance." 

On this subject he quoted from an article published in the Edin- 
burgh Rei'icw, demonstrating the benefit to the temperance cause in 
England which had been derived fi'oni the commercial treaty with 
France, whereby wines were admitted almost free from duty. He 
ended this able speech by saying : 

" Before concluding my remarks, I desire to say one word in rela- 
328 



W A I, T K R L . 1. 1 V I N O S T O N . 



tion to tliat ])rovision in the proposed article wliicli requires tliat llie 
laws regulating the sale of liquor, should be uniform in their opera- 
tion throughout the State. I am siirprised that a proposition so fair 
and just should meet with opposition in this body. Surely, the mem- 
country. Granting this argument, a little reflection will convince 
the members of this body that it offers no objection whatever to a 
uniform law on this subject. It is founded upon the erroneous idea 
that the uniformity of a law depends upon the persons who aro 
charged with its execution, and not upon the acts which it prohibits 
or authorizes. If the argument is worth anything, it proves that the 
election laws, and the laws against murder, manslaughter, arson, 
burglary, larceny, assault and battery, and many other crimes, should 
not be uniform in their operation. In fact, that no uniform laws 
should be passed at all, on any subject. Nothing further is needed 
to show the weakness of this objection, and I will not trespass any 
longer on the patience of the Convention. I have discussed the 
article in question at some length, and I have stated, as clearly as I 
know how to do it, my objections to leaving the power of prohibi- 
tion with tlie Legislature. I warn the Convention not to treat this 
matter as though no danger of a prohibitory law was to be appre- 
hended. Its advocates are in earnest, and they do not conceal the 
hopes they entertain of succeeding again as they did in 1857. If 
the members of the Convention can see no reason why such a law 
should not be enacted, then let them reject the proposed article ; 
but if, on the contrary, they agree with the views I have expressed, 
then let them not imagine that the passage of such an act is improb- 
able that no guaranty against it is required in the Constitution." 

As a member of the Committee on Charities, of which the Hon. 
Erastus Brooks was the chairman, Mr. Livingston made a minority 
report to the Convention, disagreeing with the report of the majority. 
This latter urged that the State should be absolutely prohibited from 
making any donations to charitable institutions which were religious 
or sectarian, or a majority of whose managers were of one religious 
denomination. This proposition was opposed l)y Mr. Livingston, 
329 



13 WALTER L. LIVINGSTON. 

who pointed out the injuries which would result from its adoption, 
and insisted tliat it would be far better to prohibit the State from 
making donations to any private charitable institution, than to ex- 
clude only such as might be considered religious or sectarian. The 
true rule, he maintained, was to open the door to all on equal terms, 
or to close it to all without distinction. 

On his return fi'oni the Constitutional Convention, the subject of 
this slcctch resumed the practice of law, and during the same 3'ear 
he was spoken of for the position of Comptroller of the City of Brook- 
lyn ; and it was generally believed that he could have obtained the 
nomination of the Democracy for the ofBce, had he desired it. He 
was one of the original signers of the call for the organization of the 
Bar Association, of which he is, at the present writing, a prominent 
member. 

Mr. Livingston is a gentleman of commanding and impressive ap- 
pearance. Physically he is a man of large proportions, being over 
six feet in height. Socially, he is warm and ardent, most aftable and 
conversational in the company of others, and at home is devoted to 
his family, in the midst of whom he dispenses his hospitality to his 
friends and acquaintances with all the heartiness and generosity 
which are the characteristics of his family, and which he possesses to 
an eminent degree. 

330 




^•/6 



^Z^<^^^<^L^-^ 



ELY S. PARKER. 



i) ,^T was the general belief not many years ago, and even to- 
'V^ day the opinion is still held by a majority of our people, 
'<^'- that the Indians of this continent were incapable of attain- 
ing to the high state of civilization which has made the white man 
master of the world. Numerous theories are promulgated in sup- 
port of this idea, and certainly the history of our Aborigines seemed 
to give color to what was nothing more than a popular fallacy. 
Centuries of rule liave failed to elevate the Indians to the position 
of the whites. They flee from civilization, apparently preferring the 
wild life of the plains to the ease and comforts of modem christian 
society. And yet, we have in General Ely S. Parker, the present 
United States Commissioner of Indian AfFair.s, the most indisputa- 
ble evidence of the capacity of the Indian, not only for receiving and 
practicing all the virtues and arts of civilization, but for rising above 
the masses and distinguishing himself for the culture of his intellect, 
and for his administrative abilities. 

1 General Parker is a fall-blooded Indian, of the Seneca tribe. 
There are but few persons familiar with the history of this country 
who arc unacquainted with the Senecas and Iroquois. They have 
a page in the annals of the Picpublic ; they have been immortalized 
in poetry and romance. Of this once powerful and heroic tribe, 
but a small remnant remains. The false pohcy pursued by our 
government toward the red men have almost exterminated them, 
aud General Parker is only one of a handful of warriors. Sintu- 
331 



Inly cnousjh, wltilo so luany t'lunilirs of llio SiMuvn.s and lio- 
(juoia liuvo lnvvnno oxtinct, tho most oololnatcd of tl\om all is 
still tvi>iosoi»tiHl in tlu> land of tlio Hvinj». Tho sulijtHit. of this 
skoloh is « sin\n»lsi>n, on his uiothor's siilo, o( tho famous at\»l nohlo 
IuhI .laokot, whoso oaivor, in tho oaily days of tho Hopublio, form 
an intoix'-sting part of o»ir history. Tho gn>at silvor unnlal pro- 
sont(\l by Wtushington to 15o»l .laokot in 17il'3, lus a tokon of his 
friondship and ostooni, is now in possession of Uonoral Parkor. It 
is a most intoivstiiijj historic tx>lii\ and is ohorishtnl with gn\»t oaiv. 
Tho modal was ongmvinl by Hittonhouso. On ono sido an> fnll- 
loj»i>th tiguivs of tho twoohiofs — KihI daekot, in tho ivsfumo of his 
piH^plo, pn>sontini;' tho pij>o of poaoo, and Washington, with his 
riglit hand oxtondinl. as if in tho act of iwoiving it; on tho other 
sitlo tho dato, ll\)± 

Horn in lionostv t.\nmty, in tho Stato of Now York, in ISiJS, 
Uononil Tarkor. whoso Indian nauio is lionrJnu/atca, displayinl in 
twrly youth a ktvn dosiiv for intolUvtual oultuiv, ditVoring in this 
nsjHvt lixnn tho mtyority of his ptvplo. At tho baptist Indian 
Missionary School ho nH>t>iYi\laplaintHhioation, outstripping all tho 
other soholai-s by tho rapidity with which ho loanuxl. His zeal in 
his studies wciv ivniarka\>lo, aiul it soon Ivcanio apivuvnt that ho 
was unukijig out for himself a jvvthway tlmmgh lito, loading to 
honor and ivuown. Tho txlucatiou ho iweivixl at school iliil not 
srttisty him. At tho agi> of tburtoi^M y«u-s ho ontoivil tho Academy 
of Yates, ivmaining thcn^ loss than two yoai-s, at tl»o oiul of which ho 
wont to Cayuga Academy in Oayugs* County, and studiinl thciv for 
nearly a year. His acadenucal ivui-so was not quite ivmpletc when 
ho was snmmouiHl by his piH^plo to aci\nn}vu»y a delcgjitioji of 
Chiefs to Washington, lor tho purpviso of transacting important 
bnsim^s ixmuuvIihI with tho huul rt\>crvation of Ins nation. Tho 
p)»rt he tivk it» the trat>sj\ctions which followi\l weiv important, and 
launclunl him fairly into public lito. Ho did not jvturn to the 
AvMvhnuv, but lYinaiuetl in \Yashingtou for soiuo time, devoting his 
3:ti 



Y H. I'AUKKU. 



JciHun; tiiiKito culliv.'iUiig lim inifi.l, unrl ii.|<ling to liiHHtock oflit.-,- 
aiy acquirements. 

It ]m\ iilwfiyH b(:<-n tl.o <l.;Hirc of G.;neral Parker to erril.raw; the 
le;,'al iiroCeHHiori, and accord iii;,'Iy in 1847 lie entered the law offiw) 
of Angel & llice, at Ellicottvilic, New York, where he remained Home 
two y(!arH. iiut wJien li.; Iiad nearly complet(;d hiH legal Htudicg, ho 
diHcovered tbit an obstacle lay in his path which he could not siir- 
moimt. The then existing rules of the Supreme Court of the State 
prohibited any but whitfj m/ile citizens practicing law in the several 
courts. General I'arker was not a white man— he was not even 
recognized a« a citizen, we f^elievo— henc<; he was ineligil^Ie U> Ijccorne 
u lawyer. It was a singular position for a man to hold, who was 
par excdlence an American of Atnericans, a man whose ancestors 
were j.owcirful chiefs of powerful nations who were the original 
masters of this great republic. Doubtless had the idea ever entered 
the minds of the judges that an Indian would present himself for 
a<lmission to the bar, they would luive so modified their rules as to 
make him eligible. There never existed any political prejudice 
against the red-skinned people. One of the most aristocratic 
families of Virginia boasts to-day of descent from the famous I'.wa- 
hontas. In I'aet, all that white men ever urged against the Indian 
was that he was intractable and bloodlliirHty; that it was in.possi- 
ble to christianize or civilize biui. 

Finding that it was impossible for him t., bewnne a lawyer, the 
y<jung man sadly but wisely abandoned his legal studi<;s and looked 
aroun.l him for some honorable employment in which he would have 
a chance of gaining distinction. It was not long before he discov- 
ered that other and equally promising professions were open to him. 
In a subordinate capacity he aa;omi,anied an engint^ering party 
engaged on the Genesee Valley Canal, and in the course of his 
labors learned the nadiments of engin.^ering. In IS.OO he was trans- 
f'Tred to the office of the State r:nginc*r at Rochester, New York. 
Here Ik; reniain(Ml live years, acquiring a thoroiogh knowledg(! of his 



profession, and by the end of the time named, exhibiting such 
marked ability and proficiency, that he was appointed to the position 
of Acting Resident Engineer on the Rochester section of the Erie 
Canal before he left that city. He resigned to accept a more lucra- 
tive position on the Chesapeake and Albemarle Ship Canal, for 
which he made all the preliminary surveys, located the route of the 
canal, and placed it in process of construction. On leaving Virginia, 
the Hon. M. Guthrie, of Kentucky, then Secretary of the United 
States Treasury, appointed him Constructing Engineer for the 
Lighthouse District, composed of Lakes Huron, Michigan and Su- 
perior. By this time General Parker had already won reputation 
as an engineer, and his appointment under the government not only 
extended his sphere of usefulness, but also gave him a recognized 
standing in his profession. The skill and assiduity he displayed 
were appreciated by the authorities. In 1857, Hon. Howell Cobb, 
of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury during Buchanan's adminis- 
tration, appointed him superintendent of the construction of a Cus- 
tom House and Marine Hospital at Galena, Hlinois. These works 
he completed and was then transferred to Dubuf[ue, Iowa. It is 
likely that at Galena General Parker made the acquaintance of the 
future conqueror of the rebellion and President of the United 
States, Ulysses S. Grant, then a plain citizen engaged in the busi- 
ness of a tanner. But even if he did not, it was singular that a few 
years later, he should bo closely associated with the General in the 
miglity work of putting down the southern confederacy. 

We now enter upon another phase of General Parker's public 
career. His duties at Dubuque were still unfinished when the 
rebellion burst upon the country. An ardent patriot, he did not 
hesitate a moment regarding the course ho should pursue, but 
hastened to Washington and tendered his servioes to the govern- 
ment of the United States. To his grief and mortification they 
were declined. He then returned to his home in New York. 
and directed his efforts towards ameliorating and improving the 
334 



K Eli. 



condition of his people. We should state here that in 1852 he was 
elected Chief of the Six Nations of Indians, a position he still hohls, 
and 012^- in which he leels a just pride. While engaged in this laud- 
able work, he was surprised in May, 1863, on receiving from Presi- 
dent Lincoln au unsolicited commission as Captain and Assistant 
Adjutant General of the United States Army, together with an 
Older for him to report to the head(iuarters of the Western Army 
under General Grant. He joined the Union forces at Vicksbmg, 
Mississippi, which city was then invested, and distinguished himself 
during the seige. From the west he accompanied the General to 
Virginia, not holding any recognized position on that officer's staff, 
but simply as a captain "on duty at headquarters." In 1864,' 
however, after the resignation of Lieut. Col. W. R. Eowley, he was 
appointed Military Secretary to General Grant, and was promoted 
to the rank of Lieut. Colonel. He participated in the great cam- 
paigns in Virginia, winning imperishable honors by his gallantry 
and military talent. On the reorganization of the Array, he was 
retained in the regular service, doing duty on the staff of the 
General of the army, with the full rank of colonel, to which 
was added the brevet rank of brigadier-gene.al, and was, at the same 
time, appointed an aid-de-camp on the staff of General Grant. He 
was officiaUy present at the surrender of General Lee, and wrote and 
published a graphic description of that remarkable event. 

General Parker remained on the staff of General Grant until 
after the election of the latter to the Presidency, when he was 
appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs, a position he still holds 
at the present writing. The signal success which has thus far 
attended liis administration of the affairs of his department is not 
surprising, because his heart is in his work. Civilization and asso- 
ciation with white men, honors, such as few men men attain to, 
have not rendered him forgetful of the fact that he is an Indian! 
He sees his peo].lc yearly diminishing in numbers, and he seeks to 
prevent their extinguishment, by wwining them from their wild and 
335 



(i 1-; 1. Y S . r A 1! K E R. 

siivago lilb to christian society and civiliziitiou. Indci'd, we may 
truly say that his whok^ aim in life has been to benefit his people. 
If he has sought honors, it has been to prove to the world that then; 
is no civilization too exalted for the Indian to gain. The feeling 
which actuates him was expressed in eloquent language at a masonic 
banquet, given in Chicago, in September, 1865. It attracted con- 
sideiable attention, because it contained the utterances of a man who 
represented the scanty renmant of a disappearing race. General 
Parker referred to this fact; he spoke of his struggles in coming 'to 
manhood; of the anguish which tilled his heart when he saw the 
Indian race wasting away like the dew before the morning sun. 
Continuing, and paying a high compliment to the masonic frater- 
nity, of which he is a member, he said : 

"I asked myself, ' Where shall 1 lind a home and sympathy, when 
our last council fire is extinguished ?' 1 said, ' 1 will knock at the 
door of masonry, and see if the white race will recognize me, as they 
had my ancestors when we were strong, and the white man weak. I 
knocked at the door of the Blue Lodge, and found brotherhood 
around its altars. I knelt before the great light in the chapter, and 
found companionship beneath the royal arch. I entered the 
encam[)ment, and found valiant knights willing to shield me here 
without regard to race or nation. I went farther: I knelt at the 
cross of my Saviour, and found christian brotherhood, the crowning 
charity of the masonic tie. » » I feel assured that when my 
glass is run out, and I shall follow the footsteps of my departed race, 
masonic sympathies will cluster around my cotiiu, and drop in my 
lonely grave the evergreen acacia, sweet emblem of a better meeting. 
If my race shall disappear from the continent, I shall have the con- 
soling hope that our memory will not perish. If the deeds of my 
ancestors shall not live in story, I know that the fact of the Indian's 
existence will remain in the names of your lakes and rivers, youi- 
towns and cities, and will call up memories which would otherwise 

1)6 forgotten." 

336 



In this touching lauguage wo find the sentiments of a man, proud 
of the race from which he sprang, and anxious to rescue it from ex- 
tinction. That he will devote all his energies to improving the con- 
dition of the Indians in all parts of tlie country; that he will 
endeavor to fill their minds with the nohle ideas of civilization which 
he p(jsscsse« in so eminent a degree, his past career and his jiresent 
course fully vouch for. And who is there who will not wi.sh him 
God speed in a work so grandly humanitarian, so beneficial to our 
Jieople, so great a gain to Christianity ? 

(General Parker has traveled much, and wherever he has been, 
has attracted attention. He has made numerous speeches, all of 
which are distinguished for their finished style and elegance of dic- 
tion, added to that peculiar eloquence, for which the Indian race is 
noted, and which few white men have been able to employ in their 
oratory. He is also well and favorably known in literature ; the 
"League of the Iroquois," being the joint production of Morgan 
and himself General Parker has written a great deal, and if "he 
has not published much, it has been because of an excessive modr-sty 
or sensitiveness, which has made it repugnant to his feelings to ap- 
pear prominently in the literary world. 
337 




M. (J. WWjOOX. 



(}. Wir/JOX was I-oiri January Sth, 1838, at MiddJcl^ury, 
Smiiinit, f;.,urity, Oliio. I Iih fiiLlicr wuh a cabinet niariiifar;- 
tiinr u.i.l Ciiniitun, fl(%-ilf;r, of rno.l.;rato mrvariH, an.l iiriabl..- 
to -ivc hiH Hon a lii^rl,,,,- wlncfition tliancmld ho obtained in the com- 
mon HchoolH of the W.-8t. At the age of thirteen yearw his father 
l-liuwl bin. in liiH sliop t'o learn the tra<le, and he Hoon became an ex- 
l.eit in finiwhing, exwilb'ng fbe worl<m';n in fbiH branch of the I^nwi- 
iiesH. 

ThepoHHeHHionof a trade proved of great utility t,o him, for by thin 
remuneration fie was enabled to purwne hiH HtiidieH by night, aftf;r the 
labors of the day were over. 

In the winter of 1853 and 1854, he commenced teaching, and con- 
liiiMwl bin Hchool winters, working at his trade Hummern, ur.til 
1857, at which time he entered Alleghany College as a Htudent. Dur- 
ing bin term at college he wan obliged to work at his trade nearly nix 
houTH a day as a finisher, in order that he might be able to pursue 
his course of study successfully. 

• In 1860 he commenced teaching again. As a teacher he occupied 
j.oHitions in the various grades, from the primary <lepartment to that 
ofprincipalof the Middlebury Union Schools, a position attained just 
nine years subse<iuent to his retiring from it as a pupil, arid which 
situation he continued to fill until the opening of the war. 

As a teacher he was a rigid disciplinarian, and in this respect at- 
tained much renown. 

At th<' opening of the rebellion he gave notia; to the 15,.ard of iOdu- 
339 



2 M. 0. WILl^OX. 

cation that lie would close his engagement with them at the end of the 
year, and enter upon new duties and responsibilities to his cunntry. 

Early in 18(32 ho enlisti'd as a private in (Jompany H, 104th Ohio 
Volunteer Infantry. 

While engaged in teaching he had pursued a course of study in 
medicine under the tutelage of an experienced physician of wide prac- 
tice, and, hesides, he had spent one term at a medical college, and hy 
this study was peculiarly fitted for the position of Regimental stew- 
ard, to which position he was soon appointed. 

After the entry of the Union Army into Tennessee, he went into 
the regular service as U. S. Army Hospital Steward, passing a very 
satisfactory examination before the Board of Examiners. Upon his 
appointment to this position by the Secretary of War, he commenced 
service in the 23rd army corps; in this and the 9th, also, he continued 
to serve during the campaigns in Kentucky and Tennessee, and entered 
Tennessee with the division commanded by General Burnside, in 1863. 
He was at Knoxville during the siege in that year, (which commenced 
November 15, 1863) and was principal steward for the two arm}- 
corps. He had the care and responsibility of attending to 2,500 sick 
and wounded men; of these he was reiiuired to make personal inspec- 
tion during every twenty-four hours, going through all the hospitals 
lor that purpose. 

October, 1864, he married Miss Isabella, daughter of Dr. James 
Rodgers, a prominent Union man and physician in East Ten- 
nessee. In 186-4 he was made a colonel of volunteers, and assigned 
to duty in Tennessee as private secretary to Grovernor Brownlow, and 
served thus as colonel and aid-de-camp until the nuisteringout of the 
Tennessee troops in 1866, at which time he resigned. After the close 
of the war he became interested in the development of the coal in- 
terests in East Tennessee, and their extension to Georgia and Alabama, 
and organized a company for the development of coal at Coal Creek, 
thirty miles from Knoxville; this is the most successful comj)any 

south of the Ohio River. 

340 



M.C.WIL(J(JX. 3 

During the year 1870 he organized the "Wilcox Mining Coiii- 
liiiny," which has bocii duly incorporated under the lawHof Tenneascc. 
with a capital of .f 300,000, and the success of which is due to the 
supervision of Mr. Wilcox, wlio is the main director. His mines al 
lOmory have a capacity of 300 tons per day. Colonel Wilcox 
has done a great deal to develop the mineral interests of Tennessee; 
lie has induced in various ways a great d(,'al of northern emigration to 
I hat State. By his active interest in the emigration of northern enter- 
[irising men to go south for the development of agriculture and 
m(«hanical interests, much credit is due him. He took a ijioniinent 
part in procuring the passage of the Public School Act from I 566 to 
l8()8-9, and in the organization of free schools in the State. (There 
iiad not been practically any public school system in the State prior 
lo that time.) The act became a law in the winter of 1868. Mr. 
Wilcox was superintendent of the schools of the city of Knoxviilc and 
county of Knox up to the time of the repeal of this same law by the 
present legislature. He gave largely of his means for the supp' )rt of 
the schools during the time he was superintendent, when from tiic 
condition of the state financially it was with difficulty the system was 
carried on. (See report of State Superintendent General John Eaton, 
showing indebtedness to Colonel Wilcox for these services and advan- 
ces.) He fitted up the school-houses for the city and became personally 
responsible for the leases of the buildings. During the organization 
of the public school system in Tennessee, no person in the State gave 
more largely of time and money to the cause. 

He assisted in the organization of the State "Teachers' Associa- 
tion," in 1865, and served therein as vice-President and Secretary, 
until Novemljer, 1870, publishing during this time the only reports. 

The "State Teachers' Association" has been the moans of great 
good to Tennessee in various ways. 

In 1870 he became connected with the ''Continental Life Insur- 
ance Company," of New York, as its general agent for Tennesse<\ 
and is now managi-r oi' the department for that State, and State of 
341 



Koiiluoky. Ho ha.s workoil luMivoly t'»r llic comimny, ami };uiiu'(l loi 
it u l«i>c<' i»i»">i<>' of luisiiu'ss siiuv Ilia oomuHMioii with it. jiiul lits 
uiulor l\is snpi'i vision a lur};x> ami clUoiont corps o I apnls in tlu'M- 
Slalos, liavin;^ olliavs at Louisvillo, Naslivillo, Monijihis, (.'Iml- 
lanoojcii and Knoxvillo. His i-oal olluvs aiv at Knoxvillc. Cliat- 
lanoojja, aiulal tlio mines. Ho nmnaiCt'S poi-soiially all his Imsiiu-ss, 
visit ins: somi-monthlv all tho ollioors, iusjuTlinjj; thoir honks and ao- 
oouuts. ami planninjj ami iliiwling all business hituscll", works six- 
tHMJ lumrs ont of t\vonl\-four, travoling in tlio night-timo, 
loaohins: tho oilios so as to attend to htisinoss at business hours. 
Never takes over six hours* sKvp, is ivj^nlar and tenij>erale in habits, 
andesehews the use of intoxieutin;: liquors or tobaeeo, in )\\\\ t'onn. 

Colonel Wileox pivsonts a tine jioi-soual appoaramv, is ol' medium 
heiii'ht, with a eoniplexion of the rosiest hue, eleareyo. evenly pi\>in>r- 
tivMnnl featiuws, and a remarkably largx> head and brain. He seems 
the very impersonation of sound physieal health, which is to be 
mainly attributed to his rigid observamv oV the health laws, and a 
lite of temporaiuv and activity. That he is capable o\' an inuncnse 
amount of work is at oue<> apparent. 

H'theivisnny one trait which is over-developed in his naimv. it is 
Ivnevoloiuv; it is but truth to sjiy that his charities are but lilth 
known, even by his iutin\ato friends. In his domestic n^Iations he is 
most bajipy. ix>siding at Knoxvillo. Temt.. whoiv ho married i^liss 
Uella H.h1!::im-s, possossiuj: in hera charmingcompauion, who, it nmy 
Ih> ivukmuIkmihI. was the na\MuplishiHl ••l^ollo of Knoxvillo. Tou- 
nossotv" in 18t>;>-4. He oxciviscs much iittluonw for gvnnl among a 
class of people with whom he, as a northern man intivdueing the 
spirit {'>( his section in the south, is brought socially and politie;illy 
iu wutact. 

o4'J 




v\ 



\\\IN XJ\\\ 



\\\\\\l\V: 



JAME8 L. PLIMPTON. 



f=:W persons in any age },ave perhaps contribntcd ,r,ore 
largely to the rational enjoyment of the masses, than has 
the Hubject of this sketch. In Massachusetts or South 
Carolina, New York or California, in Paris or Australia, or 
wherever else R.,lier Skating assemblies have been introduced, the 
originator has been justly acknowledged a great public benefactor. 
We are therefore satiFfied that our readers will appreciate our 
having gathered t<,gether the following facts in reference to one 
whose personal efforts have added so much to public amusement. 

James L. Plimpton was born at Medfield, Massachusetts, April 
14, 1828. In fiis early youth, it was plainly perceptible, sho'uld he 
be allowed to follow his inclinations, that mechanical pursuits- 
arid not the calling of a farmer, the occupation of his father- 
would in after years become his choice. Sixteen years upon a 
farm, however, so knit his frame and prepared his constitution 
as to withstand the great mental and physical labor he has since 
performed. 

When eight years of age, his parents removed to Walpole, 
Massachusetts. Here the ill health of his father was such that he 
was barely able to plMn the farm-work, the most of which was 
executed by James and Henry— an elder brother— each having an 
allotted amount of work to perform in a given number of days. 
The specified tasks having been accomplished, the brothers were 
liberally remunerated for all extra work performed by them; and 
thus they acquired self-reliance, industry, and skill, learning at the 
same time the importance of religiously observing all contracts and 
342 



RijivonuMitA, !U»vl tl>o tiuo vuliio ot' luoiiov, \vlu>n>liy wiis laid tlui 
fouiulutioH of luuol) of thoir jnvsoiit ^^ivspiM-itv niul suocoss. 

With tlio oapitrtl thus aoouinuhitod, llonry dovotoil himself to 
study htvominsj ovoiitually a notcnl si-hool-toaohor ; Jtimos, witli 
rapidly dovoloping luwliauioal idoas, appliod his oaruinj^ to tha 
puix'haso of tools, chomioals, drartiuj; aud philosophical instruuiouta 
»ud apparatus, usoftil books on moohauios, arts, oto. A small ouN 
huildins:. fv»rmorly used tor storing corn, sorvod as his oomhined 
stndv, work-shop. at>d lftboratv>ry. Hoix> ho pertornvinl his various 
cxporimonts — Ium-o \vort> to W soon spoi'imons of his mochanism, 
and hoiv was tho ''curiosity shop" of the neighborhood. With his 
turuinc-latho, vise, forg^v oloctrio machinos, batteries, etc., ho ox- 
hibittni wonders of his own handiwork. 

When at tho ago of sixttwi, young Plimpton loti homo to servo 
a year in a small machim^iop, in another part ^^f tho town, his 
n'nowti as a tutvhanical genius had pnveilotl him. Only a few 
months had el.'H^soil in Ivis now sphere, when he was intrustinl with 
all the draftitig, gi»ar-cutt\ng. aud other important work of the es- 
tablishment rei]uirJng skill, close calculation, and brain work. 

This year of contracts having oxpirtHl. ho accoptini a more lucra- 
tive positioi\ in a largo machine-shop, at Olarcmont. New Ilamp- 
shiiv. llerw his grt>at ability, sound judgment, and unassuming 
mannonis gaino^l lor him tho confidence and respect of .all with 
whom ho came in cvmtact ; at»d before his eighteenth birth-day, he 
was pn^mototl to t'oreman, with over titYy hands under his imnuHii- 
Hte suivrvisiou. With his greatly incro,<>sed cnrnings, he added 
rnorv^ useful In^oks to his libiiuy, devoting each spare moment to 
assiduous study. Patents and pateiu laws began at this time to 
claiu\ his ivmicular attoution and study ; .^nd to this d.ay he pur- 
sues these subjects with market! interv^st and plesisurtN having 
oolUx'ted one of the largest and most valuable libraries port.siniug 
to such mattet^ owntnl by any private individu.al. He ha^ .insisted 
AS exjKTt and adviser in mjuiy iuiiv^rt.aut cases, and his aid to 
Stevetjs, of East BrvK>kJiold, in the celebrate^i iufrius!:ement suit 
344 



JAMES !.. Pf.fMPTOV. j. 

Of Hovey v,. Steven., is a .nark..! F,.,tanee of his ability in tl.i, 
direction. 

At the a;<e of twenty-one, he a«(K>ciated himself with his brother 
m the hijHineBs of machine-building at Westfield, MassachusMtH 
and tho. over twenty years a^^o ua. inauj^uratf^ the business firm' 
of H. R. & J. L. Plimpton, exteuMvely known for many yea.s past 
as designers, manufacturers, and dealers in fine furniture dw-ora- 
fons. etc., Henry R. having charge of the bnsine.s in Bostor., and 
James L. in New York. 

An hour spent at Mr. PlimpU>n'« place of business in New York 
would astonish any one, at the vast amount of n.ental labor per- 
formed by him in directing the great variety of interests upon 
which he is at present engaged. It is not unusual for him in one 
short hour to act in the capacity of merchant, architect, landlord 
designer, inventor, legal adviser, capitalist, financier, etc. In all 
matters he is clear, cautious, and decided, never yielding, a princi- 
ple for profit, and never failing to meet an engagement or agree- 
ment—he has always enjoyed the confidence and re-ipect of all who 
know him. It would be impossible in this short notice to illustrate 
the various traits of his character or to enumerate the many com- 
plicated machines and original inventions that have emanate^] 
fron his fertile brain ; we have therefore seler.ted the ones in which 
the public are at present most interested. 

Having improved his health from a season of ice-skating at 
• Central Park in 1862, it was Mr. Plimpton's desire to continue the 
.exercise. Careful investigation fully demonBtraterl that aHificiul 
u-e was a failure for that puq.ose, and that no roller-skate had ever 
been made, upon which the curved movements of ice skating could 
be perfonued. Mr. Plimpton in his desire to sapply that'much- 
needed article, soon produced a roller-skate that could be guided 
by the will of the wearer, by the natural inclination of the body 
From this simple instrument he has reared one of the most 
popular and beneficial systems of exercise extant, and of which 
3t has been justly said, "As Howe's sewing machine is to oar 
■645 



} .TA MKS I. n.iMrTON 

in.lu!^iii!il wiuits, or Mi'ifo's toloixnipli to oominoiviiil pursuits, so 
Plimpton's evstom of oxoroiso is to the social and jilivsicnl wiiius of 
eocioty." 

In adrtptinir thoso grcnt inventions to tlio roq\iirenii>nt8 of the 
public, thous^ii simple in themselves. tlu\v Imvo cunsed their origin- 
Btor a vast amonut o\' tim^, mental labor, and money. 

Ilavinsj completed the necessary mechanical appliances, Mr. 
Plimpton directinl his attention to the development of the new 
tield of usefulness to which his invention had given rise. 

Bv his etVorts in IStUl the New York Roller Skating Association 
was organized. This pioneer association has ever since flourished 
in a marked degree, always having been under the imniediate su- 
pervision of its distinguished founder. As a popular instructor 
and disciplinarian he is eminently qualitied with generosity un- 
equaled, aTul liberality to a fault, no pei-sonal exertion or expense 
is ever for a moment considered, while his friends or the public arc 
to be benefited tliereby. 

His imposing and beautiful block known as Plimpton's Build- 
ing, in New York, was designed by himself, and erected under 
his own immediate supervision at an outlay of over one huu- 
drt\i thousand dollars, and built principally for the purpose of hav- 
ing a suitable place in which his favorite hobby could bo developed, 
and for the better accomodation of his pet association. In the sum- 
mer of lStH>, this association leased the Atlantic House at Newport, 
Rhode Island, converting the large dining-room and piazza into a 
eummer skating hall, titting up the other portions of this spacious and 
f»»&hionable hotel for the accommodation of the association and 
their invited guests ; while nothing was left undone for tlie comfort 
and enjoynient of the membei"*. much pains were also taken by Mr. 
Plimpton in bringing this system o( exercise to the notice of the 
eilucated and i-etined classes from all jiarts of the country. The 
city officials, clergy, press, physicians, board of education, teachers, 
and other exemplary citizens of Newport, were elected associate 
members of tJie assi>oi«tion for the season. Invitations were ex- 
34G 



toriflcd to tho varioiih okatirig organizationH tliroughoiit the country, 
luimy of whom sent delegutcfl. Receptions and gpocial entertain- 
ments were also given to many noted visitors, among wliom were 
Princ! Ouronssoff and (!ount de Montagur;, of Rnssia, Major-General 
Slierman, Major-Gcneral AiidciWHi, and other distiriguinlied military 
personages, also ofBcers and members of the New York Yacht Club, 
General Bullock of Massachuetts, Chief Justice Bigelow, and others,' 
all of whom appeared truly delighted, and expressed their warmest 
congratulations to Mr. Plimpton for his success in having originated 
a novel, refined, healthful, and amusing exercise of undeniable pub- 
lic utility, and susceptible (.f participation and enjoyment by both 
ladies and gentlemen, at all seasons of the year. 

Since thus bringing this new system of exercise into public notice, 
Roller Skating assemblies have sprung into existence as if by magic 
in all parts of this couj.try, as well as in Europe, and wherever seen 
it leaves the unmistakable marks of practicability, imparted to it 
by its originator. We can not illustrate the liberality, or record 
the honore due Mr. Plimpton, in terms more appropiate than by 
giving the following copy of a series of resolutions, presented to him 
by the New York Skating Association at their first meeting after 
returning from Newport. 

At a meeting of the New York Skating Association held at their 
rooms in New York, Sej.tember 4, 1866, the following resolutions 
were unanimously adopted : — 

"Whereas, Mr. James L. J'limpton, the worthy and most es- 
teemed founder of our association, has presented to us the rccnipUid 
bills for all expenses incurred during our late memorable Hojourn 
at Newport, Rhode Island, therefore, 

"Jieaohed, That the heartfelt and sincere thanks of this asso- 
ciation are most cordially tendered to Mr. Plimpton for this great 
act of munificence, as well as for many like liberalities heretofore 
received at his hands, 

"liesohied, That the thanks of this association are further due Mr. 
Plimpton, for his untiring personal exertions, while presiding over 
347 



(f .1 A M E S I, . r L I M r T N . 

the Bsseiiiblics nnd providing for tlie (•oinrort hikI I'lijoyment of oui- 
inoinliers, iissociatos, and noted guests. 

'^Resolrtti, That this is a most snitiibio occaeiou to acknowledge our 
higli appreciation of Mr. Plimpton's public services, as the origina- 
tor of Circular Roller Skating, and ivs tirst to discover, illustrate, 
and make known that skating was a science as well as an art based 
on tixod and undeniable laws, the coiuprohension of which enables 
us to learn with rapidity and to impart instructions in a clear and 
concise manner to others. Ho has devised and established a system 
of regulating and (conducting this exercise so as to insure at all times 
physical benetit, social improvement, and rational enjoyment. Ilis 
ingenuity, research, enthusiasm, and energy have added another t.i 
the polite arts, au art as boundless in extent and as beautiful to con- 
template as sculpture or ]>ainting, while possessing great social and 
physical advantages. 

" J^e^olvtif, That these resolutions be properly engrossed and pre- 
sented to Mr. Plimpton as a mark of acknowledgment for his ser- 
vices and liberality in our behalf, as well as in behalf of the count- 
less thousands who enjoy the fruits of his genius. And in conclu- 
sion let us assure him that his memorv will ever be cherished as tlie 
originator and promoter of a system of exercise and beneficial recre- 
ation, for which refined society will ever owe him grateful remem- 
brances." 

From a host of voluntary acknowledgments by distinguished 
persons we select the following : — 

FiLMORE House, Newport, Aug. 23, 1866. 
Jambs L. Pi-iuvton, Esq., Snpt N. T. Skating Association. 

Dear Sir. — I owe you an expression of my sense of your kind invitation of myself 
ami friends to the rooms of the Skating Association last night ; and assure you that 
had we been merely amused with the novelty of your eutertaiunient in reproducing in 
midsummer wliat has heretofore been exeU\sivelT a winter amusement, we would have 
been completely Siiiislied with our evening's entertainment 

But your complete success in esttxblishing not only a novel, but a most agreeable and 
healthful exercise and amusement for ladies and gentlemen, and one which we are 
ronvinced will be of great public utility, is a subject of congratulation, to be highly 
appreciated. I remain yours, truly, 

T. W. Shsbuas. 
34S 



JAMES L. PLIMPTON. ^ 

To rthow that Mr. Plimpton's -ysteui of exercise, and public ser- 
vices are as highly appreciated at the South as at the Noith, we 
present the following from one whoso reputation is well known, 
both as a pliysician and learned divine. 

LoaiBvri.LE, Kt., Oct. 8, 1869. 
MAjon Elias Lawbbnoe, Now Orleans, La.: 

Dear Sir, — I am glad to hear you arc about to open a hall for B/jller Skating in New 
Orleans, I can not doubt that your enterprifle will be crowned with eminent Buccess. 
Nothing in Louisville hag ever taken, with all ciasBeg of citizens, asCapt. Glover's Hall 
lias done, and nothing ever set on foot for the amusement and physical improvement /f 
its young people is more wortliy of encouragement. Roller Skating is just the thing 
wanted by our young people, especially by our girls. It affords just the sort of exercise 
they require for their physical development — gentle but active, and so attractive that 
they can not resist it. It is my deliberate opinion, that no conception has ever entered 
the human mind, in this century, so important to the health of girls, in our cities, as this 
skating within doors. Nothing could exceed it in grace. No sight I have ever beheld 
is so beautiful as the Louisville Kink, with its tastefully dressed young men and girU, 
sailing, swimming, floating through the mazes of the march, as if impelled by magic 
power. The old people assemble nightly to witness the sight, apparently as much de- 
lighted as their children. All honor, I say, to the originator of Roller Skating. Long 
may he live. The children will rise up and bless hia name. 

Yours truly, L. P. Tandeli., 8b., M. D. 

From the foregoing acknowledgments it is readily seen that Mr. 
Plimpton enjoys an enviable position among the benefactors of the 
age. The unexampled mode by which he has won renown, — the 
jiublic spirit manifested by him, together with his charitableness, 
;ind lavish expenditures, for and in aid of his fellow-men, render him 
a fitting subject for this publication, as one of the j^rogressive and 
self-made men ol" the times. 

349 



SAMUEL lUESMUH PtilME. 

fiMUEL IliE.N'iEIJB FKIME is tli* ifju of tU^ late Eev. 
Nathxtniel B. Prixiie, D. D., an euiiiiejit aud learned diviiw 
of tLe FreBbyterlan Church, Jli* graiidlJith«r wa« a phyisi- 
cjan ill New York, and the authx;r of several Btirriiig j>atriotic halladjs 
of the Ii<iVolutioiiary War, which are prewirved in Griiswold'e Ap- 
pendix to Diisraeli's " Curioeitie* of Literature/' The ta«te of this 
fiimily for hterary culture aiid purfeuitK ha« l>een marked in many 
generationjj. A Kiagle fact will ijluistratc tlu* hereditary t<rndency, 
A son of the Bubject of thiis sketch m a clergyman, and reads the 
identical Greek Testament which his father read, and hiji grandfather, 
and hij5 great-grandfather, and hiis great, great-grandfather ; mak- 
in|^ five isiicce»Bive generatioruj of cLassIcal gtadent«, and all clergy- 
men but oiie, he beiiig the phvBician befir^re Bfxjken of, who wrote 
readily verse or prose in the ancient claggias, and m several modem 
tongues. 

B. Irenaeus Prime was lx»rn in Balkton, Saratc^ County, New 
York.' He was prepared for college in Cambridge, Washington 
County, New York; and was gradioated at William* College in 1829, 
before he was seventeen years old; receiving one of the highest hon- 
ors of his class. He jyursued the study of theology at Princeton 
Beminary, and, after a succassful ministry of five years, owing to 
failii^ health, relinquished pulpit labor, and came to New York in 
1840, where he entered the office of the New York Obfte-rct^i- as an 
afcsistant editor. He was at tliat time twenty-i>even years old, and 
before long the principal burden of the editorial department was laid 
upon him. With oniva brief irjV^rval of two years he haisdii^ehar^ed 



2 SAMUEL IHKNyKl'S PRIME. 

tliese duties w-ith uiuemittiiig ardor and stoadiuess of purpose till 
the present nioineut. 

The distinguished founders of the New York Observer, Sidnej 
E. and Richard C. Morse, retired from -the paper in 1858, after a 
long career of honorable usefulness, and Ur. Prime, purchasing the 
interest of S. E. Morse, Esq., is now the senior editor and i)roprie- 
tor of that well-known religious weekly. Its circulation, though 
largely among Presbyterians, has never been confined to them; but 
being established upon a broad and imsectarian basis, it finds ready 
acceptance among Christian people of all denominations. 

The subject of this sketch, though contending with feeble health 
till within a few years past, is one of the most accomjjlished and pro- 
lific writers on the press. Overflowing with humor and good spirits, 
delighting in his work, which he pursues as if it were a pastime, he 
accomplishes a greater amount of labor in a given time than any 
man with whom we are acquainted. A philanthropist in the widest 
sense, he is an active working member of the principal benevolent 
and religious institutions: he is prominent among the Dkectors of 
the American Bible Society; the American and Foreign Christian 
Union; the American Colonization Society, and others; he is Cor- 
responding Secretary of the United States Evangelical Alliance, 
President of the N«w York Association for the Advancement of 
Science and Art, Trustee of Williams College, President (elect) of 
Wells College for Young Ladies at Aurora, Kew Y^'ork, and a work- 
ing member of other institutions too numerous to mention. Not a 
week passes without applications being made to him to advocate, in 
the pulpit or on the platform, some benevolent or religious object; 
and he is not allowed to be idle, even if he wished to be 

No small portion of his time is consumed by persons from far and 
neiir, attracted by the kindly and sympathizing nature of his writ- 
ings to apply for advice and assist.ince; and his correspondence with 
men of the age in the Christian Church, at home and in foreign 

lands, would fill volumes ^ ^ 

3o>2 



SAMUEL IliEN^EllS I'UIME. 3 

Dr. Prime was one of the most active and influential promoters 
of the Reunion of the Presbyterian Church. The Observer having 
a wide circulation, and perhaps equally wide among both branches, 
its editor was able to exert a direct and fiivorable influence in tlie 
direction of reunion. From him came the proposition to appoint 
the "Joint Committee" of the two assemblies to negotiate terms of 
reunion, whose deliberations resulted in the consummation of the 
union in November, 1869. 

Dr. Prime has also been a traveler in many lands, having at differ- 
ent times made extensive journeys over the European continent, the 
Levant, and Egypt; and his books of " Travel in Europe and tlie 
East " have been popular for many years. Few, if any American 
clergymen, have formed so extensive an acquaintance with men 
abroad, or made themselves more familiar with the social manners 
and customs and internal condition of European countries. Besides 
his letters and constant contributions to the periodical press, and 
his multitudinous editorial labors. Dr. Prime is the author of more 
than thirty volumes, most of them published without his name, and 
all of them, we believe, have had a wide circulation. Some of them 
have been reprinted abroad, and in several languages. More than 
one hundred thousand copies of his work, entitled " The Power of 
Prayer" were sold in Eiu-ope, and his "Thoughts on the Death of 
Little Children " carried comfort to thousands of soiTowing hearts. 
A rough estimate of the amount of his published writings shows that 
they would easily fill a hundi-ed fair sized volumes of 400 pages each. 
And all that he has written and done has been prompted by the single 
and evident purpose to do good—to make the world better and happier. 
In the midst of this life of literary labor, Dr. Prime can always 
find time for the enjoyment of social converse with his friends; he is 
a frequent guest as well as a generous host, and his inexhaustible fund 
of anecdote and story enlivens many tables, and his wit brightens 
numerous assemblies. He is now 58 years old, and fresher than 
when he came to New York, thirty years ao-o. 
353 






J^c^/ "hL JtU^-^C^ 



SILAS M. STILWELL. 



fILAS M. STILWELL, the subject of this sketch, was 
born in tlie City of New Yorlc on the sixth day of June, 
1800. His grandfather was an Episcopal Clergyman in 
Jamaica, Long Island, before the War for the Independence of these 
States, and his father and several uncles were in the service of the 
Colonies; one of them, Major John Stilwell, was killed in the bat- 
tle of Long Island, when the American forces under General Wash- 
ington withdrew, and crossed over the East River into New York. 

The subject of this sketch was educated at the Kingston Academy, 
in the County of Ulster, in this State, and before the close of the 
late war with Great Britain, became a clerk with Col. Richard 
Kingsland, in his hardware store in Maiden Lane. The termination 
of the war produced greater depression in the value of merchandise 
than any event that had preceded it, and resulted in making 
bankrupts of nearly all our merchants and manufacturers. His 
father had been 'argely engaged in both of these pursuits, and conse- 
quently suflered severely. To extricate himself from debt he parted 
with a large proportion of his property, and took in exchange exten- 
sive tracts of land lying in the States of Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky 
and Tennessee. This event changed all the plans which the subject 
of this sketch had formed to become a New York merchant, and he 
was tiiun rapidly instructed in the art of surveying lands, prepara- 
tory to taking the agency of this large property in what were at that 
time the wild and remote regions of our countrv. 

On the morning of the Sth of Juno, 1817, he crossed the Hudson 
355 



„ SII. AS M. STII. WKLL. 

River, nnd with a sniiill piu'k on liis back whicli contained a compass, 
protractinjr instrunioiits and a few clothes, he started on foot and 
ulone, witli hut tea dollars in his possession, to perform the task as- 
signed to liini. 

It is not our purpose in this paper to trace the career and liard- 
ships of camp life in the woods, or the various incidents that oc- 
cur to those who followed close on the footsteps of the retreating In- 
dians. Suffice it to say that he arrived at the scene of his labors, 
where more obstacles to success were to be overcome than were con- 
templated by those interested, and finding that le ;al knowledge was 
necessary to secure the object he was pursuing, he entered the law 
office of Judge Simuels, in the town of Parkersburg on the Ohio, and 
in 1824 was licensed an attorney at law by the Court of Appeals ot' 
the State of Virginia, then sitting in Richmond. 

After a successful term of four years' practice, he returned to the 
City of New York, where he arrived on the tenth of November, 
1828. This was an important and interesting period in the ])oliti- 
cal history of the country. The death of DeWit Clinton had pro- 
duced a change in the personnel of parties in the State of New 
York, and the election of John Q. Adams, by the House of Repre- 
sentatives, over G-en'l Jackson, by the aid of Mr. Clay and the Ken- 
tucky delcgaton, united all the disaffected political men of the coun- 
try with the Democratic party, in favor of Jackson. 

At this time the question of municipal reform was agitated in 
the City of New York, and attracted much attention. Feeling 
much interested in the proposed alterations in the City Charter, the 
subject of this sketch entered into the controversy, through speeches 
at pul)lic meetings, as a reformer of the law.^ for the promotion of 
the cause of liberty and happiness among the people. 

This municipal contest brouglit him prominently before the pub- 
lic — and at the ensuing election, through a quarrel and division 
among the leaders in Tammany flail, an opposition ticket was pre- 
s.^nted, and his name was placed on the general ticket as a candidate 
356 



S I L A S M . S T U. \V E L L . 3 

for Assembly. The National Republicans also nominated Iiim, and 
thus he was elected by a much larger vote than was cast for any 
other candidate. 

Being tluis elected by the votes of both political parti(!s, when 
party politics had a largo control over personal feeling, he directed 
his attentiou to measures of public interest and law reibrm, and in- 
troduced into the legislature a 

BILL TO ABOLISH IMPRISONMENT FOR DKBT. 

At this time it is not possible to imagine the feeling of opposi- 
tion that was aroused by the introduction of this Bill. Every pe- 
cuniary interest in the country appeared to be excited. The keepers 
of country stores and taverns, constables, doctors, and trades-people 
generally, as well as lawyers and pettifoggers, united in opposition. 
The Bill was accompanied by an exhaustive report, which was 
printed for the use of the members, but no one rend it, and the 
House was unwilling to act upon it, until every member h-.iA been 
talked with and the session was near its close. At last, as an act of 
courtesy, the Bill was brought up for discussion, and the debate that 
followed demonstrated that every lawyer in the Assembly was opposed 
to its form or substance. 

For the purpose of throwing the responsibility of the defeat of 
this measure upon those who were using their talents to crush it, at 
this stage of legislation, a motion was made to refer the Bill to a 
committee of nine members to report to the House what action 
should be taken upon it. 

The subject of this sketch was placed at the head of the committee, 
with the privilege of selecting the remaining eight>— he selected eight 
of the leading lawyers of the Assembly, all of whom were opposed to 
the foi-m or substance of the Bill, but after several protracted discus- 
sions and additions to the Bill of several amendments, the committee 
rejjorted it to the House and favored its passage. 

The effect upon the members was instantaneous, and the Bill was 
passed and sent to the Senate. The same struggle was encountered 
357 



i SI I. A S M. 8TI I. W E[. L. 

there, but it finally passed on the last day of the session — and 
awaited tlu' signature of Governor Throop until thu hour for ad- 
journment had airived. The speaker of the House, Gen'l Davis, was 
persuaded to witliliold an adjournment aftir his valedictory had been 
pronounced, aud until the Bill was brought in with the Governor's 
sijfuature, wlien the fact was announced, and the Lep:i>Iature ad- 
journed sine die. This Bill became a law on the "iGth day of 
April, 1S31. 

The Act contains the following section, which was inserted by the 
opponents of the Bill, to give time to agitate for a repeal before the 
Act could take ctFoit; an extraordinary provision, the like of which 
has never before or since been promulgated in relation to the passage 
of any act, thus showing one of the many obstacles against which 
Mr. S. was obliged to contend. 

"Sec. C* !lii- n * sliall take effect as a law ou the first day of Marcli, 1832, but 
theSecr.tii - i Jl immoiliiitely cause a siifficieut number of copies of this Act 

tobeiniiii ! i;> I I iiiiiti.1', to supply every .Tustice of the Peace iu tUc .Slate, and 
every 'IVwii > i i n i ^ii niV, withacopy, which shall be transmitted by him to the 
Clerks of tiio duiciviu (.xnmtios, audby theindistribut«d totlie otUuers eulitlej there- 
to— the expense of whidi printing and transmission to the County Clerks shiiU be paid 
out of the treasury in the manner provided by law." 

Great efforts were made throughout the season, by the opponents 
of the Act, to get together petitions and t)ther influences tt) bring 
about a repeal of the law at the next session, which resulted in send- 
ing many members pledged to its repeal and a very large number of 
petitions. In the meantime Mr. S. had been re-elected to the 
Assembly, and was made chairman of the committee to whom these 
petitions were referred. No leport was made upon these petitions 
until the last week of thesession. The conclusion the committee then 
an-ived at, was, that no amendment was necessary to accomplish 
the objects intended by the Legislature. Thus the Act was allowed 
to go into operation on the H:st day of March, 1832 : a day ever to 
be remembered by every lover of human rights. Perhaps no law or 
ordinance has been enacted since the Runnymede Mmina Charta, 
that has produced such an aineliomtinir and himianizing effect 
upon the character and liberties of a jx>ople. It was the beginning 
358 



1 T I L W E r, L . 



ofa change that is Still progressing in fav„r of the down-trodden, 
unfortunate portion of humanity. It distinguished between mis- 
fortune and fraud, and enabled the honest unfortunate to enjoy the 
• same sunshine and liberty that is possessed by the rich and fortunate. 
Opposition to the Act still continued, and to identify and throw 
contumely upon the author, the name of " Stilwell Act," was applied 
to it, and by this name has this great beneficent and now popular 
Act been since known. 

At this day it is impossible to convey to the human mind the 
idea of the relief extended to the poor and unfortunate of this State 
by the enforcement of this Act. There were 3,062 persons in prison 
or on the limits of the prison. More than 1,000 were confined for 
sums less than one hundred dollars, and 625 for sums less than 
fifty dollars. The first of March, 1832, was therefore an occasion 
for rejoicing among the poor. By the law of imprisomnent we 
pumshed the wife and children of the petty debtor, more than the 
debtor, and, by a careful inquiry into the causes of debt amon- the 
prisoners, it brought out the appal.ing fact, that more than one- 
third were arrested for small debts incurred for liquor hj fathers 
husbands and sons. ' 

As soon as this act became a featu re of importance on our Statute 
Book, Its author opened a correspondence with distinguished men 
m this country and in Europe, which correspondence has now con- 
tinued for nearly 40 years. After the exercise of a degree of indus- 
try, patience and perseverance seldom equaled, he has now the satis- 
faction of knowing that directly and indirectly the law of imprison- 
ment for debt has been aboHshed or greatly amehorated in every State 
and territory i,. the Union. And within ten years past the great 
and glorious example of this country has been followed by every 
principal State in Europe. 

Shortly after the passage of this Act, Laid Brougham opened a 
correspondence through Mr. Van Buren, then American Minister (o 

England, with Mr. S., and transmitted a resolution of thanks and 
359 



6 SILASU.STILWELL. 

honorary membership, of the The Law Reform Association of Exeter 
Hall, London. From that time until the day of his death. Lord 
Brougham proved himself a personal friend, as well as correspondent 
and co-laborer in this great work. Letters have been written in the 
course of this correspondence by Lord Brougham or Mr. S. to many 
eovereigns and distinguished men in Europe who appeared to possess 
power and influence in legislation in the several empires, kingdoms 
and States, and no influence was more potent than the example of 
the United States of America, and no correspondents were more 
zealous and satisfactory than the ministers and consuls of our govern- 
ment. 

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 

During the winter of 1832 IVIr. S. made an elaborate and logical 
report on the propriety of abolishing the death penalty. He divided 
his subject into eight heads. Each one was treated independently 
of the others. The dxth pjint presented, is in these words: " How 
far is it authorized by the laws of God.? " After quoting from 
many learned authorities which explain the meaning of the words 
" whoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," 
he says, " This passage can hardly be considered as anything more 
than a prediction, and must be placed on the same ground with such 
passages as, ' He that taketh up the sword, shall perish by the sword. ' 
' He that leadethinto captivity shall go into captivity.' 

" Indeed, if we consider the text referred to as a positive law, and 
one that must be enforced at all hazards, how can we understand 
the case of Cain.'' He was the shedder of man's blood, and in the most 
brutal and depraved manner. The Almighty did not take blood for 
blood, and yet, ' the blood of Abel cried to him from the ground,' 
He does not even mention the penalty of death as due for this crime, 
and only pronounces upon him a ciuse. What effect the cm-se pro- 
duced, we are not informed, but Cain replied by saying, that he 
could not endure this curse, because ' every man that finds me will 
slay me.' Now this was not permitted; the Lord interposed and 
360 



SILA8U.8T1LWELL. j 

placed his mark upon him, lest any one finding him should slay 
him, and declared that this murderer was under his especial protec- 
tion, and that any one who should slay Cain, vengeance should be 
taken on him seven ibid. 

" This, then, is the interpretation and meaning given to this cele- 
brated passage of scripture by the Almighty Law-giver. 

" We are wan-anted in saying th;it whether we look to the laws of 
nations, as exemplified in the principle of self-preservation, or to the 
laws of God as declared by the Old and New Testament, we are 
equally admonished to 'do unto others, as we would that others 
should do unto us.' This intepretation reconciles the commands of 
God the Father, with the life, examples and teachings of His blessed 
Son." 

This document was published by order of the legislature, but, in 
consequence of many errors appearing in it, the paper was revised 
and printed in pamphlet form, and afterwards re-printed at length in 
many papers here and in Europe. At this time Edward Livingston 
our great lawgiver, and codefier for Louisiana, was the American 
Minister to France. On receipt of this report he wrote the foUowin- 
letter: ° 

tha'nWo^, Wif ^T^^^.^^c^'^ed your valuable report through Mr. Gallatin and I 

The Bill encountered opposition, and although the House of As- 
sembly would have passed it by a small majority, yet the Senate 
were known to be uncompromisingly hostile to it, and it was not 
pressed further upon the attention of the Legislature. 

EAILROADS. 

During the session Mr. S. prepared a report on the subject of 

Radroads, and gave a detailed history of the number and construction 

uf these roads, and presented Bills for the Utica and Schenectady 

the New York and Albany, the Erie and several other Railroads! 

361 



that wercpnssed, nnd became laws. This report was repuWishcd by 
(Jongivss and by the ll.mso of Commons of Great Brituiu. 

STATIC CAN.VI-S. 

At the Ibllowing session of the Le<?isliiturc ho was appointed Chair- 
man of the Committee on Canals, and gave to the subject his undi- 
vided attention. Ho prepared a voluminous report covering every 
(luestion then known to apply to our system of canals. All his sug- 
gestions wero adopted, except the proposition to consolidate all the 
several canal accounts and bring tliem into a general account. The 
proposition was to call the Erie Canal a main trunk and all the 
others, parts, thus making all the canals the body and limbs of a 
great system. He said, " That this plan would make an entirely in- 
dependent department. The canals would be self-sustaining, and 
devoted to the interest of trade. The canal tolls should be limited 
to an amount necessary for repairing and enlarging the canals, and 
paying such expenses as are necessary to facilitate business on 
thera. 

" Thus this ftmd, from all our canals, would be protected and '»d- 
ministered for the benefit of our people. 

" It is not my purpose to limit the expenditure for new cauMs to 
the income from this fund, but to allow no money to be drawn tl\>?ro- 
from as a source of revenue for State expenditures outside of the 
canals. 

HARLEM RIVER C.\NAL. 

The Committee have not made a formal report in favor of several 
projected improvements of the greatest importance to the system 
of ctmal construction that we have entered upon. Our great caaal 
has not a complete termination at Albany, and some of the commit- 
tee are in favor of extending our main canal through the Ilarle}n 
liiver to the East liivcr, a distance of seven miles. These two 
elongations of the canal must produce the most valuable results, 
by expediting and cheapening the cost of transportation to and from 
oG'2 



81 L A S M. ST I L W ELL. 9 

the West, and opening a clear passage for our canal boats through 
the Harlem River. It is well known that nearly all the products 
of the West that come to market through our canals, and are not 
sold for consumption within the City of New York or suburbs, are 
sent to the Eastern States or to Europe. Veiy little finds a mar- 
ket in the Southern States or in South America, consequently this 
great trade between the West, the Eastern States and Europe is daily 
and hourly taxed by the necessity of going about 30 miles around the 
Island of New York instead of seven miles through the Harlem 
River. The additional charge upon western produce from the want of 
this direct channel to a market in the Eastern States and Europe 
amounts to millions annually. Indeed, one fifth of this yea.rly charge 
upon produce would open this necessary channel for trade, and 
make a perfect termination to our canal. This important terminus 
will be made, and the attention of the Legislature should be directed 
to it with as little delay as possible." 

We regret to say that this valuable advice has not yet been heed- 
ed, and the great and increasing trade between the West and a 
market is now, from this cause, subjected to a cost of several millions 
annually. An estimate of the cost of opening the canal throu"-h 
the Harlem River from the Hudson to the East River, by responsible 
engineers and contractors, shows that this great economical mciasure 
can be completed in one season by an expenditure of three hundred 
thousand dollars. 

UNITED STATES BANK. 

Near the close of the session of the Legislature a Resolution was 
presented approving the action of General Jackson in removing from 
the United States Bank in Philadelphia the funds depo.sited therein 
by the Secretary of the Treasury. The constitution and laws gave 
to Mr. Duane, Secretary of the Treasury, the entire and absolute 
custody of all the National funds, and required him to make his re- 
ports directly to the House of Representatives; thus rendering him 
pro tanto an officer of the House. General Jackson made war upon 
36-3 



10 SILAS M. STILWKLL. 

this institution, and commanded Mr. Duane, ns his Socretaiy, to 
take IVom the Bank these deposits. This the Secretary refused to 
do, and the President removed him from the otBce, and appointed Mr. 
Tawney Secretary. This Secretary, thus appointed, performed the 
act, and the treasure of the United States was removed from tlie 
United States Bank and placed in partizan State Banks. The ques- 
tion of approving this act of the President came uji fairly in the Reso- 
lut ion before the House, and required from the members a free and full 
expression of opinion upon the subject. Until the House entered 
upon tlie discussion a large majority of the Democrats were in favor 
of rejecting the Resolution, but as the debate continued, one after 
another went over, until, on the final vote, only two Democrats voted 
against it. Mr. S. had made a speech against the measure, present- 
ing such {a. As and arguments as his own sense of right and justice 
seemed to require, and voted openly and plainly against the Resolu- 
tion. 

This vote of Jlr. S. gave occasion for, and brought out a general ex- 
pression of disapprobation from, the Democratic press, and so v-iolent 
were the denunciations against him that there was no room for con- 
ciliation, and it rendered a separation from his party a question of 
self-respect. 

On the meeting of the nominating conventions at Tammany, dur- 
ing the fall, a nomination for Assembly was tendered Mr. S., and de- 
clined. Two other nominations, made by other parties, were declined; 
but some local friends, without consultation, nominated and had him 
elected to the office of Alderman, on the Whig ticket. This was en- 
tirely repugnant to his wishes, as he was not a decir.ed jvirtizan. 
Still, being elected to this office by Whig votes, it became a matter 
of jersonal honor to act with this party. The parties were nearly 
equally divided. The Whigs, finding themselves in a majority of 
one, reso.ved to turn out every Democratic office-holder in the city. 
After joint consultation in Caucus it was resolved that Mr. S. 
should do that duty, consequently every removal and a])pointment 
364 



SILAS M. STILWELL. j, 

was attributed to him, while he was only carrying out faithfully 
the instructions of his associates. 

RAILROAD AND SHIP-CANAL. 

The question of an ai^propriatioa from the City to aid in building 
the Erie Railroad was brouglit to the notice of the Board of Alder- 
men by the Eaihoad Directors. Mr. S. was waited upon by Samuel 
B. Ruggles, James G. King and others of the directors who were in 
favor of the measure. On this occasion, la a speech of great length 
before the Board, he reviewed the policy of our State on the subject 
of internal improvements, pointed out the route of a ship-canal to con- 
nect our city with the lakes of the great West, discussed the pro- 
spective value of railroads and the importance of a wise fostering 
care over all works of a public character. This speech was widely 
published, and attracted great attention. 

The following concluding remarks contain ^ prediction which may 
be interesting to many persons: " When all that I have pressed up- 
on your attention shall be completed, we sl.all be on an eminence 
which the proudest empire on the globe might envy. And, sir, all 
that is now demanded of the State cun be effected; this great chan- 
nel of steamboat communication with the West can be opened. The 
Railroad, of which the one under consideration is only the begin- 
ning, can be completed by small aid from the State, and a ready, 
cheap and certain commimication can be opened into the great and 
fertile West, tlirough all the seasons of the year. So rapidly may 
these works be completed that twenty years will scarcely be added to 
the past, before the cars from many converging railroads will be 
pouring into our city in an interminable current, pressing down 
through its center and filling the stores, warehouses and ships with 
the produce of the West; infusing life into every department of in- 
dustry, and driving far from us the lethargy of our present inactive 
winters. Your Island must thus become the Warehouse for this 
might/ continent; and your docks and slips from Fort Washington 
to the Battery, and from Whitehall to Harlem, shall be occupied.by 



12 SILASM.STILWELL. 

hundreds of steamers that will navigate the waters and tributaries 
of the Great Lakes. Your harbors will be crowded with slii])s from 
every nation, and this Island will be the mere center of a city which 
shall spring up in Wcstchrster, Long Island and New Jersey. 

" Is all this fiction or is it fact.'' Is it the offspring of an over- 
heated imagination, or is it only tlie result of the knowledge of the 
natural and artificial resources of our country .? Sir, these state- 
ments are true, and I am glad to have the opportunity to predict 
that if our State and people will build this proposed shijj canal, fin- 
ish our small canals down to Albany, and make their terminus 
through the Harlem into the East River, and j)ress forward and 
complete all projected railroads leading into this city — that there 
are many persons now, in this crowded Hall, that will live to see this 
Empire City spread over and beyond the boundaries of this Island, 
and contain a population of three millions of people." 

This speech was delivered in 1835; more than 36 years ago, and, 
for want of the sMjj canal, who can estimate the amount of business 
that has been and is diverted from this city ? If the ship canal had 
been built to enable a steamer of one thousand tons to pass up to the 
Lakes, by the way of Lake Chaui})lain or Oswego, a continuous com- 
munication could now be had with the Mississippi by this route. 
This open ship canal to the upper Lakis would have controlled for 
our market all the trade embraced within the delta of the Great Lakes. 

N. BIUOLE. 

In the meantime, the removal of the deposits and the assaults 
made by General Jackson and liis friends upon the United States 
Bank, was ])roduciug a mighty sensation throughout the country. 
Petitions for and against the Bank were pouring into Congress 
from all quarters, and the business and credit of the country was 
nearly prostrate. A committee of distinguished merchants and 
bunkers was selected in New York to bear a mammoth petition to 
Washington in f\ivor of the Bank, and Mr. S. was appointed to ac- 
companv them. 

36(3 




/^ILo 



Xa'v-vv*^--^ 



GEORGE N. KENNEDY. 

'eORGE N. KENNEDY is emphatically one of the 
^^ self-niade men of the country, having by his unaided 
|~li> efforts wrought out his own fortunes and won the honorable 
position wliich he now occupies. He was born at Marcellus, one of 
those romantic little villages dotting the valleys of Onondaga County, 
in the State of New York, on the 11th day of September, 1822 ; his 
father was of Irish origin, and his motlier a descendant of the Puri- 
tans, stock likely to beget energy of action and enthusiasm of pur- 
pose, characteristics which the subject of this sketch possesses in an 
eminent degree. Acquiring such education as his limited oppor- 
tunity and means would afibrd, he selected the legal profession as 
most congenial to his taste. At the age of eighteen he entered the 
law office of Edmund Aikin, in his native village, and by his own 
efforts supported himself during the period of his clerkship. After 
a course of laborious study, at the age of twenty-one he was admitted 
to practice as an attorney in the several courts of the State, and at 
once took a prominent position as a member of the bar. He remained 
at Marcellus, engaged in the duties of his profession, until 1854, 
when, believing that a larger sphere of usefulness could be attained, 
he removed to the city of Syracuse, and entered into partnership 
with the Hon. Charles B. Sedgwick and Charles Andrew s, at present 
one of the judges of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, 
of which firm, except as changed by the elevation of Judge Andrews 
to the bench, he has since been and "s now a member ; and it may 
be truly said that his success exceeued the most sanguine expecta- 
tion of his friends. He at once became a leading member of the bar 
in Central New York, and has been engaged and taken an active 
part in nearly every important case tried in that locality during the 
367 



a QEOEOE N.KENNEDY. 

last ten years. As a connsellor, he is prmlont and cautious ; as a 
lawyer, keen and searching; and as an advocate, eloquent and 
logical. 

Mr. Kennedy has always found time amid the varied and 
laborious duties of his profession to give attention to the affairs of 
the country, and the politics of the day has received a due share of 
his consideration. Originally a democrat, he continued to act with 
that party until compelled by its subserviency to the demands of the 
slave power to sever his connection with it. 

In 1856, believing that the safety of the country demanded that 
a bold and firm stand should be taken by the friends of freedom 
against a further spread of the institution of slavery, he entered witli 
all the enthusiasm of his nature into the presidential canvass of that 
year, and gave his support to General Fremont ; and such was the 
effect of the efforts of himself and his friends that his native country 
gave in the canvass a majority of seven thousand for the path- 
finder. 

In 1860, after the triumph of tlic principles for which he had con- 
tended had been secured in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the 
Presidency, and when the voice of the people was attempted to be 
stifled by Southern arrogance, and the integrity of the Republic 
destroyed by Southern treason, he was found among the fii-st to 
render aid and support to the Government. At all times during 
those hours of travail which seemed to measure the life, and which 
so strongly tested the stability of the Eejjublic, his time and means 
were unsparingly given. Since the close of the struggle liis influence 
has hoon exerted, and his efforts have been untiring in securing the 
fruits of the contest. 

The confidence of his party in his integrity and prudence cannot 
be better illustrated than by the fact, that during the continuance of 
the rebellion, he held the chairmanship of its Central Committee. At 
the election in the tall of 1867 he was chosen to the Senate of New 
York, and has held a seat in that body since that time. His great 
faiuiiiarity with the interest of the State peculiarly fitted him for the 
3C8 



QEOEGE N. KENNEDY. 3 

discharge of legislative duties, and ho at once took a prominent posi- 
tion and materially aided in shaping the action of the Eepublican 
party npon all the leading measures of State policy. 

The interests of the State in the management of her canals are of 
paramount importance, and the policy in regard to them inaugurated 
by the democratic party on its ascendency to power, he deemed 
radically wrong, and one directly calculated to impair the benefits 
of canal navigation, and to jeopard the interests of the people. 
When, in the winter of 1870, it was proposed to turn the care of 
these great artificial water-ways over to a class of ofiicers denomi- 
nated superintendents, he strongly condemned the measure as likely 
to prove disastrous, and predicted as a consequence an entire loss of 
revenue to the State from this source. The first year's ejrpericnce 
illustrated the accuracy of the prediction, and the results were sucli 
that in the winter of 1871 the plan was abandoned, so far as legisla- 
tive action controlled it, and the care of the canals was restored to 
their constitutional guardians, the commissioners. 

Appreciating the rapid advance which was being made towards a 
religious contest between Protestantism and Catholicism, involving, 
as it would, an attack upon the integrity of the common school sys- 
tem of the State, he met the question upon the threshold and boldly 
took the ground that the interests ol both Protestants and Catholics 
demanded that they should rest their claims to favor and support 
upon the fi'ce offerings of the people, and that no sectarian appro- 
priations from the State or from any municipality should be made 
to either; and to his efforts, more than to any other single person, 
are the people indebted for an escape from this danger, and to him, 
more than to any other, is due the unwilling recognition by the 
democratic party of opposition to sectarian appropriations. 
. Mr. Kennedy is truly a man of the people. His warmest sym- 
pathies have ever been enlisted in the support of every question 
involving the common good. He may well be classed among the 
progressive men of the day, and we predict for him a future as bril- 
liant as his past has been successful. 
369 




^:^^^^^c^;^/^;^^^.^A 



HENDRIOK BRADLEY WRIGHT. 

BY. W. C. K. 

lENDKICK BRADLEY WRIGHT was born at Plym- 
outh, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on the 24th day of 
April, A. D., 1808. His father was of that family ol 
Wrights whose ancestors came to America with William Penn, and 
settling at Wrightstown, near Burlington, in West Jersey, there ex- 
ercised the oflSce of a Justice of the Peace under the Royal Com- 
mission, and at the same time, was an ardent member and supporter 
of the Society of Friends. His mother, whose maiden name was 
Hendrick, was descended from one of the earlier Dutch colonists of 
New York. 

The father of Mr. Wright removed from Wrightstown to Plym- 
outh in the year 1795, and soon became one of its most prominent 
and substantial inhabitants. Ambitious for the welfare of his son, 
he secured for him the best educational advantages which the locality 
afforded, and in due course of time, sent him to Dickinson College, 
where he pursued the usual classical and mathematical studies. 
Upon leaving college he began the study of law in the office of the 
late Judge Conyngham, of Wilkesbarre. Under the wise counsels 
and vivid encouragement of that able jurist and truly admirable 
man, he made rapid progress, and was admitted to the baa- in 1831. 

During the ten years which followed, Mr. Wright devoted himself 
assiduously to his profession. The bar of Luzerne County, at that 
period, contained some of the most learned and eminent counsellors 
of Pennsylvania. Among these Mr. Wright soon took a high posi- 
tion, and as an advocate before the jury he achieved a marked pre- 
371 



2 HENUniCK BRADLEY WRIGHT. 

emincaco. Somcwbat above the middle height, of large frame, of 
erect nnd commanding figure, with great power and flexibility of 
voice, and a coimtcnanco fnll of life and expression, lie was an orator 
who always arrested and continued to compel attention. It was not 
without reason that his clients believed and said that no jmy could 
resist him. Armed at all points with evidence drawn from every 
available source, and brought to bear upon the minds of the triers in 
such order and with such strength as to render the cause of an 
opponent almost hopeless from the outset, he followed these attacks 
with arguments of such earnestness and energy as rarely failed to 
complete the rout and secure an easy victory. In truth, it may bo 
said, that in a just cause ho. never knew defeat. Such success could 
not otherwise than win for him an extensive reputation and a lucra- 
tive, as well as a laborious practice. 

In the year 1841, partly to gratify his numerous friends and partly 
as a respite from professional toil, he accepted a nomination to the 
House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, and was elected. He at 
once became prominent as a committee man and debater, and was 
Boon acknowledged as one of the leaders of the House. In 1842 he 
was again elected, and received the appointment of Chairman of the 
Committee on Canals ;md Internal Improvements, a subject always 
of deep interest to him, and to wliich he had devoted much attention. 
He also took a position on the Judiciary Committee, under his friend 
the present Judge ElwcU, of the Columbia District, for the express 
purpose of procuring a repeal of the law providing for the imprison- 
ment of poor debtors. In this matter his eiforts were untiring, and 
he at last had the satisfaction of seeing that barbarous law blotted 
out of the Statutc-Book of his native State. Ho also strenuously 
endeavored to procure the abolition from the prison discipline of 
Pennsylvania of the system of solitary confinement, a method of 
punishment which always appeared to him as ec[ually needless and 
inhuman, but in this effort ho was imsuccessful. 

In 1843 the nomination of State Senator was ofiered to him, but 
372 



HENDBICK BRADLEY WRIGHT. g 

preferring the popular branch of the Assembly, he declined the 
honor, and was again c-Iccted to the House. Upon tlie openinr. of 
the session he was chosen Speaker, a position which he ably filled 
and where he acquired a facility in parliamentary rules and usages' 
which proved of signal advantage to him in the years that followed. ' 
In May, 1844, ths Democratic National Convention met in Balti- 
more to nominate a candidate for the Presidency. It was a time of 
great excitement, growing out of the Texas-annexation question 
The Convention was almost equally divided in sentiment upon th. 
snbject, and fears of serioas dissensions were entertained The 
friends of annexation met in council, and after a long discussion, it 
was determined that every other consideration must yield to the 
necessity of appointing to the Chairmanship of the Convention some 
man skilled in parliamentary mles, and with sufficient tact and 
courage to secure their enforcement in every possible emergency 
Mr. Wright, then a delegate at large from Pennsylvania, was at once 
recognized as the man for the occasion; having first been elected 
temporary Chairman, he discharged his difficult and responsible task 
with sucli efficiency during the organization of the Convention, that 
he was unanimously chosen its permanent presiding officer. At this 
Convention, whose session lasted nearly a week, and over whose 
stormy discussions its watchful Chairman held an unrelaxin'^ and im- 
partial rein, James K. Polk, a Texas-annexation candidate, was 
finally nominated. 

At the close of the Convention Mr. Wright bade farewell to the 
assembled delegates in these words : 

"*•••"' Our larbors are terminated; ourworkis done. Inafew hours 
we leave this arena of the last fom- days action, but my voice falters 
under the thought tlmt we part forever. This body, composed of 
the most distinguished men of the country, was assembled to dis- 
charge as solemn and sacred a trust as that committed to the men 
who met m the Hall of the Continental Congress, when the great 
charter of American Liberty was bom. If the Eastern Conqueror 
373 ^ 



4 HENHUICK BRADLEY WRIGHT. 

wept over the millions of human brings passing in re\'iew before 
him, for that in a short time not one of them should be loft, how 
much more reason have 1 to weep at the thought that the concentra- 
ted monument of mind before me must pass away in the change of 
all things ! But it cannot be. It will be fresh on the jiage of his- 
tory when the Pyramids of the Nile sliall have crumbkd, stone by 
stone, to atoms. The man may die, but the fruits of his mind are 
the growth of eternity." 

From 184rt to 1852 Mr. Wright was again engrossed in profes- 
sional duties. In the latter year he was elected to Congress, and 
served a term with great ability. He was renominated in 1854, but 
was defeated by the "Know Nothing" element, of whose narrow 
and exclusive policy he had always been a most uncompromising foe. 
He then retired from public life, and determined to devote the re- 
mainder of his days to the law. 

But upon the breaking out of the rebellion in 18G1, he was 
again called from his retirement. The nomination to Congress was 
tendered him by both political parties. He accepted, and was of 
course elected ; and amid the perplexities and dangers %yhich sur- 
rounded the Federal Congress during the next two years, he was 
distinguished as a consistent and untiring advocate of an undivided 
Union. Although a life long Democrat, and as such, wedded by 
the strongest political ties to the doctrine of State Sovereignty, yet 
in him the citizen rose even above the politician ; and in the hour 
of national peril he was contented to let political opinions slumber 
until the great and pressing work of national salvation was accom- 
plished. Thus, while he advocated no measures of subjugation, and 
regarded interference with domestic institutions, for their own sake, 
as unadvisable, he constantly supported the government by his vote 
and his voice in its at tempts to overthrow the internal enemy. In a 
speech delivered January 14;h, 1863, not long after he had followed 
his eldest, best loved son, to a soldiers' grave, he thus replied to the 
Peace Resolutions offered by Mr. Vallandigham : 
374 



HEKDBICIi BRADLEY WRIGHT. 6 

" Sir, there is no patriotic man who does not desire peace ; not 
peace, however, upon dishonorable terms ; not peace that would de- 
stroy our great government ; not peace that would place us in an 
humble attitude at the feet of traitors ; but that peace which will 
make Liberty live, peace that shall maintain and perpetuate the 
eternal principles of Union, based upon equality, handed down to 
us by our fathers and sealed with iheir blood ; the peace of Wash- 
ington and Lafayette, whose images decorate the walls of this house; 
a peace that shUl not defame and belie the memo;y of those illus- 
trious men, is the one I would see established in this land. 

o o o Our army went to the field to suppress rebellion. Its 
numbers have reached over eight hundred thousand men ; larger 
than any army of ancient or modern times. It is still in the field, 
and its destiny is to preserve entire this Union and to protect the 
flag, and it has the courage and power to do it. o o » « 

But, Sir, I bring my remarks to a close. Where I stood when 
the rebellion began I stand to-day ; on the same platform. My 
opinions have undergone no change. I denounced rebellion at the 
threshold ; I denounce it now. I have no terms to make with the 
enemy of my country which will destroy the Union. I am satisfied 
that none other can be obtained. Time will determine whether my 
position is right or not ; and I calmly abide it. The war. Sir, has 
cost me its trials and tribulations, and I can truhj close these re- 
marks with a quotation from an ancient philosopher, uttered over the 
dead body of his son slain in battle ; 

' I should have blushed If Cato'a house had stood 
Secure, tcadiJlouriAeJ. in a civil war.' " 

After the close of the Thirty-seventh Congress, Mr. Wright with- 
drew from both politics and business, and has since lived in the en- 
joyment of the competency and honors which the labors of his earlier 
years acquired. He has not, however, been idle, but has occupied 
himself in the preparation of a " Practical Treatise on Labor," in 
which he has embodied the thoughts and observations of forty active 
375 



6 llKNIXiUMv ItltAni.KY WIUOHl'. 

yours, ftiui which ho int. ^nds to loavo, as a last legacy, to that por- 
tion of the Anwricau pooplo in whom ho has I'elt most interest, nnil 
for whom ho has most diligently toiled. For, although of private 
iharaeter this is no place to speak, yet one thing may be said whieh 
entitles him of whom it is uttered to bo held in everlasting remoin- 
branee, that throughout his entire professional and public life, llen- 
ilriek B. Wright has been emphatically the friend of the poor man, 
the advoc^vte and cliampion of the laborer against the aggressions 
both of capital and of politie^vl ostracism ; liberal to him in word 
and in gift, true to him in promise and fulfilment ; and that he still 
iiv(>s and labora for the work iiuj men of his nation and his native 
Commonwealth. 

37G 



DAVID PAUL DllOWN. 

*,f',W/IIE ancestors of Mr. Brown came from England with Lord 

vjfe| Berkley and made the first settlcsmont of New Jersey in 
•^ ^ Gloucester County. 

The suhject of this memoir is the only son of Mr. Paul Brown of 
Philadelphia, and lihoda Thackera, a native of Salem, Mass. He 
was born in Philadelphia in the year 1795. His parents possessed 
an ample fortune, and spared no pains or expense in the mental cul- 
tivation or physical improvement of their only child. 

Until he was eight years of age the fond parents were his exclu- 
sive teachers; especially to his mother was intrusted his moral and 
religious training, and in after life he has remarked "that the 
instructions received from her were more impressive and had a 
greater bearing and influence on his whole after life, than the scores 
of teachers to wh<nn from time to time, his education was confided." 

The best private teachers in different branches were sought for his 
instruction. An Italian was selected for crayon drawing and water 
colors; an English artist for landscapes and flowers: a French- 
man for fencing; for mathematics the late Mr. Delamar, one of the 
best professors in the science. 

Although he was his father's j^ride, and the delight of his mother, 
they were not unmindful that sacrifices were to be made for his fu- 
ture welfare and ultimate good. In a few more years their son must 
mingle in society, and ought not to be a home-bred youth. There- 
fore, at a proper time, they sent him from home to some of the best 
schools and institutions for acquiring knowledge; many now will 
remember him as always standing at the head of his class. 
377 



2 D A V 1 [) r A U I, B K W N . 

Money was lavishly given liim to supply every want, but it was 
too common to seem of much value or afford much pleasure. In 
after life he has often remarked that lie " never was so rich or hapjiy 
as in his early youth, for then, in the language of Socrates, ' he 
wanted less, and therefore a])proached nearer the gods, who want 
nothing.' " 

At the early age of fifteen he lost his devoted mother by death; 
but her practical virtues, the example of her christian life, lier last 
farewell blessing, were undying influences on her orphan boy. For 
a time he seemed paralyzed with grief, became moody, engaged in 
no amusements, and day by day moped over his books, until, tljvin- 
dled and emaciated, he became a mere skeleton of himself. At last 
a change of scene was decided upon, and the invalid was sent to 
Rev. Dr. Dogget, of Massachusetts. At the expiration of his term 
of studies he returned to his father feebler in body, though enlarged 
ir. mind. 

Having now reached his seventeenth year it was thought best for 
him to make choice of a profession, and his father favoring the study 
of medicine, ho was accordingly introduced as a pupil to the cele- 
brated Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia. The study of medicine proving 
tiufavorable to a nervous and feeble frame, also Dr. Rush's death 
oeeurring about this time, it was thought best for him to leave his 
medical studies for the profession of the law, and accordingly he 
commenced a course of reading with the late Wm. Rawle, a dis- 
tinguished lawyer of Philadelphia. 

A year before the termination of his law course his father died, 
leaving him alone in the world. In after years he writes that his 
chief grief is, that his parents, who watched over his spring and 
summer of life, did not live to behold the harvest of their parental 
care. 

In the year 181(3, at the ago of twenty-one, Mr. Brown, having 
read law for nearly four years, was admitted to practice in the 
District Court, and Comt of Common Pleas in Philadelphia, and 
378 



D I'AUL BROWN, 



soon afterwards to the Supreme Court of the State, and Supreme 
Courfs of United States. When twenty-four years of age, he was 
appointed to deliver the annual oration before the Washin-ton 
Benevolent Society. The oration was delivered to an audienc^ of 
five thousand persons, without the aid of a manuscript. 

Mr. Browa married Miss E. C. Handy, the accomplished and 
only daughter of Sewell Handy, of the U. S. Navy. He has been 
blessed with five sons and two daughters. Shortly after his mar- 
riage he WciB engaged with Mr. Binney and Mr. Rawle in the 
Circuit Court of the United States, upon a highly important case 
of Snyder v. Zdin. 

Shortly after this he reviewed, for Mr. Walsh, Joanna Baillie'a 
Poetical and Dramatic Productions; Colonel Hamilton's work 
upon the Men and Manners of America; and Lord Brougham's 
speech upon the lie/orm of the British Laws. In the year 1830 
he wrote Sertorius, or the Roman Patriot, a tragedy; and the 
Prophet of St. Paul's, a melodrama, which were followed by the 
Trial, another tragedy; and a faice, called Love and Honor, or the 
Generous Soldier. 

His poetiy is generally smooth and harmonious; not a jarring 
line is to be found in Sertorius, though he composed it in two 
weeks, on horseback, in the night time, during a ride of thirty 
miles every night to visit his family, then residing in the 
country. 

Some persons have the good fortune to be called by all their 
names at once; it is so with this gentleman; it is never Mr. David 
Brown, or Mr. Paul Brown, or Mr. David. P. Brown, or Mr. D. 
Paul Brown, according to a modern fancy, but David Paul Brou-n, 
all three at the same time. But with or without all three of his 
names, he is a remarkable man. He stands, in many things, at tlie 
head of the profession, if eloquence be a test of professionarstrength 
or di$tiactioa-ror elo-iU3ac3 he uadjabtedly has, and of a h.Vh 
order. ° 

379 



In liiiliils Mr. Browu ia vory absU-iinous. He never dinoa \Vlion 
lio is oxjiivting to spoak on any imiiortnnt case. Until ho was 
twenty-live yoiire of nge, water was his only drinlc. 

In oonvertiation he has no superior; sometimes gay or grave, na 
the oceasion may require, nilapting himself to all conditions of life, 
to the loftiest or lowliest. He alunmds in gestures, hut his actions 
arc suited to his thoughts. His examination of students shows 
superior mental powers. Hia mode of composition is i)ecnliar; ho 
never writes himself, hut dictates to his amanuensis while wa.llciiig 
the room. 

A marked featiu-e in his professional life is a kind regard for 
the younger members of the bar. If a young nian of merit is strug- 
<»lin<^ for a foothold, he takes him hy the hand and renders nssist- 
aiieo. Says a writer, "there are scores of young lawyers at the 
riiiladelphia bar, who can date their rise from an association or 
eomieetion with the subject of this memoir." 

He is of middle height, compactly made, with a full, round 
chest : his forehead is high and broad, eyes black ; mouth large 
(a gift almost essential to an orato.), and his voice of great compass, 
ranging from the lowest notes of the flute, to the highest blast ot 
the bugle. His manner, his matter, his language, all cohere together, 
and all are directed to the enforcement of his argument. 

Great men, with few exceptions, are indifferent to mere ex- 
ternals. Not so, however, with the subject of this memoir. He 
is, perhaps too much devoted to it, but aj>parently ifgardless of 
it to othei-s. 

For the last quarter of a century he has been incessantly engaged 
and spoken almost daily. Thus passes his life. It is nearly closed, 
and it may be truly said that there have been few lives of greater 
labor or greivter pleasmv. 

We have now given a tVw incidents iu the life of this di^tin- 
guishod 'member of the Philadelphia tmr. W-e htrre seen him ia 
early youth an invalid, a little later, left an orphan at a tender age, 
3S0 



VAVIU PAUL RHOVVN. 



fnendleas and alone, bereft of a futWs counsel and a mothorV 
iove. Although possessing great wealth he was never allured into 
the paths of vice and dishonor. Wo can behold him now, havin. 
reached the pinnacle of fame, one of the most celebrated elo- 
quent, and distinguished lawyers at the most powuful bar in the 
U nion. 



381 



JOSEPH FAGITANI. 

*^OSEPII FAGNANI waa bom in Naples, Italy, on 
("sasis Christmas eve, 1819. From his earlj childhood he showed 
saS^ a decided taste and talent for drawing; he invariably 
won the prize at the monthly competition or concours, and before 
he was thirteen had taken several crayon portraits. One of these, 
a likeness of Baron Smucker, Chamberlain to the Queen Dowager, 
mother of Ferdinand II., the reigning sovereign, was so remarkable 
that the Baron showed it to her Majesty, who sent for the youthful 
artist, gave him an order for her own portrait, and was so gratified 
with its success, that she granted him a pension for five years from 
her privy purse, and facilitated his studies by every means in her 
power. He was, at that time, a pupil in the Eoyal Academy, and 
continued there until the age of eighteen, when he was commis- 
sioned, by the Queen Eegnant, to go to Vienna, to paint a portrait 
of her aged father, the Archduke Charles, the famous adversary of 
the great Napoleon. On his return he stopped for some time at 
Florence and Milan. In Florence, he painted portraits of several 
members of the Grand Duke's family, and at Milan, among others, 
the likeness of a lady, who was then considered as the most beaa- 
tiful woman of Italy, La Landriani. 

In 1842, Fagnani went to Paris, where the Queen Regent of 
Spain, Maria Christina, was then residing in exile. As he was 
specially recommended to her Majesty by her mother, the Queen 
Dowager of Naples, she immediately employed him to make an 
album of portraits of the Spaniards, her companions in exile, Mar- 
shal Narvaez, Olozaga, Martinez de la Eosa, and many others. 
The Queen also sat to him for a large half-length portrait. The 
Duke d'Aumale had just returned from an Algerian campaign, 



2 JOSEPH FAUNANI. 

»nd El-Al)omli, an Arab Chiot', was one of h\A favorite Aides-de- 
Comp. Fngnani painted a portrait of him, which so pleased tho 
Duke, that ho sent the artist a valuable ring, with his cypher and 
coronet in brilliants on a dark blue enamelled shield, surrounded 
with diamonds of the finest water. He also painted the entire 
family of the Prince of Capua. The Princess, it will be remem- 
bered, was the celebrated and beautiful Penelope Smith. 

When Queen Christina was recalled to Madrid, Fagnani shortly 
afterwards followed her, and remained at that capital for two years, 
during which time he painted the portraits of almost every one of 
any distinction in the country — among others, the young Queen, 
her sister (the Duchess of Montpc^isier), tie Duchess of Alba (sister 
to the Empress Eugenie), Sir Eobcrt Peel, then an attach^ of the 
British Legation, and nearly all the foreign Ambassadoi-s at the 
Court. Here he became acquainted with Sir Henry Bulwer, the 
British Minister to Spain, who formed so strong a friendship for 
him tliat he invited the artist to take up his quarters at the lega- 
tion, and he remained there during the whole of his stay in Mad- 
rid. The friendship thus formed has continued without intermis- 
sion up to the present time, and there is r.o person of whom the 
artist speaks move warmly, and to whom he expresses such senti- 
ments of gratitude as to Sir Henry. 

Dming his stay at Madrid, Fagmmi was commissioned to go to 
Xaples to paint the portrait of the Count of Trapani, to whom it 
was at that time intended to give the Queen in marriage. While 
there, he was unanimously elected Academician of the Eoyal Bour- 
bonic Academy, and received the only gold medal ever given for a 
portrivit; five silver medals had already been awarded him, to 
these was now added the highest honor in its gift, with the excep- 
tion of the great historical medal. On his return to Madrid, he 
received from the Queen the decoration of " Isabella la Catolica." 

Shortly afterwards he went back to Paris ; here he painted the 
Countess Guiecioli, then atfianced to the Marquis de Boissy, and 
several other personages of note, among them Gustave de Beau- 
3S4 



JOSEPH I.'AGNANI. 

mont d Viscount Alexis do Toequeville, the distinguished author 
of Democracy in America." Ue had a sitting appointed by the 
Queen Mane AmeHe, wife of Louis PhHlippe, when the revolu- 
tion of 1848 broke out, and eveiy thing was changed 

In 1849 Sir Henry Bulwer was appointed minister to this 
country, and wrote to Fagnaui, offering him a place in his suite 
and a passage in her Majesty's war steamer, the Hecate The 
artist ac^cepted the invitation, and the party arrived in Washing- 
ton an December 1849, after a pleasant voyage, stopping by the 
way oth at Madeira and Bermuda. General Taylor was then 
President. Thus Fagnani visited the capitol in time to seethe 
the great constellation of statesmen of the last generation, of 
whom Clay, Webster, Benton and Calhoun, were the bright iar- 
ticular stars. He painted portraits of Webster, Clay, Cass and 

famil7'' ""^ '""^ ^'^'°''''' "^ '^" ^'■''^'^'°' ^^''' "^'''^^ ^«^ the 
Fagnani visited New York, and finding that if he remained 
his t,me would be fully occupied, he concluded to settle perma- 
nently m that city. In 1851, he married an American lady, and 
became generally known to the New York public as being in the 
foremost rank as a portrait painter. His likenesses were in- 
vamb y good, and his pictures distinguished by an elegance and 
mdivdual.ty not easily found. He continued to reside in New 
York until 1858, when he returned to Paris on account of the 
health of his eldest son. He had no sooner reached there than 
Queen Christine, then living at Malmaison, sent for him to take 
two portraits of herself, one to be sent to Madrid, the other for 
the palace she was then building at Rome; and gave him com- 
missions also for portraits of her daughter and son-in-law, the 
Frmce and Princess Ladislas Czartoriski. In I860, Fagnani 
painted Richard Cobden (who was then in Paris negotiatint the 
treaty of Commerce), in two different poses. One of these'por- 
traits was presented by the artist to the New York Sanitary Fair 
and purchased by Morris Ketcham, who gave it to the New York 



4 JDSEPH FAGNANI. 

Chamber of Coinincrce, the other was bought by the National 
Portrait Gallery of London. 

In 1861, Fagnani went to Naples and painted Garibaldi, who 
was then dictator; this portrait is now owned by the city of 
Naples. In 1SG2, he received an order from the Neapolitan 
^[unicipality to paint the King, Victor Emanuel, and went to 
Tnrin for that purpose, and made a portrait so satisfactory to his 
majesty that he bestowed upon the artist the cross of the Order 
of St. Maurice and St. Lazare. "While in Italy he also painted the 
Prime Minister Katazzi and General Cialdini. Fagnani returned to 
New York for a few weeks in the winter of 1861, and in the June 
following left for Constantinople, where he spent the summer. He 
and his wife were guests at the English Embassy, Sir Henry Bulwer 
being then British Ambassador to the Sublime Porte. Here he 
painted the present Siiltan Abdul Aziz, the Grand Vizier Ali 
Pacha, and othei-s. The commander of the Faithful was so much 
l)leased that he gave the artist the decoration of the Imperial 
Order of the Medjidie of the third class (equivalent in Europe 
to that of commander), and a superb gold snufl-box, its sides 
enamelled with \T[ews of the Bosphorus, and its lid entirely cov- 
ered with diamonds. On his return to Paris he took a copy 
of Victor Emanuel's portrait for his daughter, the Queen of Portu- 
gal, who expressed her satisfaction by sending him the Portuguese 
decoration of the order of Christ. At this time, also, he painted 
the Empress Eugenie, and made a portrait, in oils, of the Countess 
Guiccile's famous miniature of Lord Byron, which she had never 
before allowed to be copied. This likeness of Byron is said by 
the Countess to be the only good one extant. In the spring of 
1865, Fagnani visited London for a few weeks to paint a portrait 
of John Bright for the Union League Club of New York, and 
another for the Chamber of Commerce of that city, which was pre- 
sented to it by S. B. Chittenden. He also copied Mr. Cobden's 
portrait, for T. Bayley Potter, his • successor in Parliament. In 
the fall of 1865, as his son's health was now permanently re- 
■AS6 



JOSEPU FAONANI. 5 

established, Faguaui dctcrmiiicd t(j return to New York. Not- 
withstanding his constant mingling with the liighest classes of 
European society, his mind was deeply imbued with democratic 
principles, and he was an earnest admirer of the government of the 
United States ; he wished his boys to be citizens of this great re- 
public, and rightly thought that they should return liere while still 
young enough to make their interests and their education essentially 
American, being himself already a naturalized citizen, New York 
is therefore now his home. Since his return, his occupation has 
been almost incessant ; he has painted two portraits of Lieut. 
General Sheridan, one for the Union League Club of New York, 
the other for the General himself; General and Mrs. Fremont, two 
fine half length portraits, the Kev. Dr. Tyng, and scores of others 
less known to the public. 

Of course* tliis constant work gives him but little time for any 
painting outside of strict portraiture, but two years since he con- 
ceived the idea of making a series of half length pictures, choosing 
certain distinctive tyj^es of American beauty and investing them 
with classic drapei'ies, and the symbolical attributes of the Nine 
Muses. The idea was a most happy one ; they were exhibited suc- 
cessively in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, and drew crowds 
of admirers. Among quantities of laudatory notices we copy one, 
perhaps the most carefully written, and which appeared for the first 
time iu English, in the Piiiladelphia JV. A. Gazdf^, of Fcburary 
9th, 1870. 

"Faonani and ins Muses. — The following translation of an 
article from ' L'Eco d'ltalid,' is so happy in its praise of the beauti- 
ful pictures now on exhibition at the galleries of the Messrs. Earle, 
that we give it place with a cordial endorsement. 

" It is alwayg a happy day for us when we are able to signalize a 
riQvr triumph of art and genius in America. And if by genius, in 
the most obvious acceptation of the word, is meant the inventive 
power of intellect, as by art the elegance and correctness of the 
material element by which the intellectual type is rendered, the 
387 



6 JOSEPH FAGNANI. 

tritmpli is complete when, as in these last works of Fagnani, 'The 
Muses,' it is difficult to say to which of the two the greatest praise 
should he given. The name of Joseph Fagnani is already well 
known among the most distinguished artists, not only in America, 
but in Europe ; but by these nine paintings we do not hesitate to 
affiiTn he will acquire still more splendid and lasting fame. 

" The works of Fagnani, known by the name of ' The Nine Muses,' 
are composed of nine figures of natural size, on nine separate can- 
vases, but they form in their ensenible one comprehensive whole, 
one single conception ; each painting is a complement of the other, 
without in the least detracting from the intrinsic and special merit 
of either one contemplated by itself. Look at them assembled 
together, and they appear the best synthesis that art can make of 
tlie ideal Pierides of mythology ; observe them seperately, and 
you will find the most charming Terpsichore, the most dignified 
Clio, and the most fervent Erato that ever poet invoked. 

" The artist, in undertaking this work, was inspired by a graceful 
prompting of deference and gratitude toward the coimtry whose 
hospitality he has enjoyed for many years, and which has known 
how to appreciate his merits. Foreign historians and publicists 
have already employed their pens for the glory of this nation, poets 
have celebrated its deeds, capitalists have brought hither their 
wealth, warriors have di-awn their swords in its defence. Fagnani 
had but his pencil and his colors, and with these he also desired to 
bring his tribute of homage to the American Union. 

" Having always preferred delicacy and suavity to strong and 
harsh tones in his coloring, it was very natural that among the many 
glories of this country, he chose to celebrate the most attractive and 
loveable of all — the beauty of the American women. "Whoever 
knows Fagnani, and the imiform gentleness of his mind and man- 
ners, has in this work the best proof of the axiom, " In the style 
you see the man." To give to his work, at the same time, unity 
of conception and variety of form, he had the happy idea of 
choosing the antithesis of the muses whom he has embodied, in nine 



JOSEPH FAGNANI. ^ 

American ladies of the highest social positions, their places of birth 
being selected in such manner that diiferent States of the Union 
fnrmsh their contingent, and here we forestall the objection of the 
hypercritics who might exclaim, " You are crying in our ears all 
these high sounding words of genius and inventive power and yet 
you are only talking of portraits." To these aristarchs, if such there 
be, we reply first, as a general rule, that it is plainly demonstrated 
m esthetics that he who copies from nature invents. In this special 
case, we would advise them, before passing sentence, to thorouc^hly 
study Fagnani's style, and to study it above all in these nine btau- 
tiful pictures. Fagnani, in his portraits, is never the servile, pedantic 
reproducer of the model such as it appears before his easel His ex 
qusite artistic taste leads him, almost in his own despite, to an ideal 
ot beauty to which his model approaches the nearest, and this he 
renders, but in such a masterly way that the features of the ori<.in- 
al, which he imitates more than copies, are never falsified in their 
individual type. Whoever sees one of his portraits is equally di- 
vided between his admiration of the likeness and the beauty of the 
painting. It is ],ke the favorite air of a musical opera beneath 
the fingers of a clever pianist, who refines, retouches and caresses 
It without ever changing the melody. And add to this that he 
not only understands thoroughly the difficult art of givino- perfect! 
bihty to the form without modifying it, but he is also mo'st dexter- 
ous in transferring to each physiognomy which he paints, that pe- 
culiar aspect, more mental than physical, which is impressed in a 
greater or less degree by nature on the face of all, U trait, as the 
French call it, that indefinable characteristic expression, difficult to 
portray on canvass, but which contributes much more than the 
exactness of the lines to create a speaking likeness. This is not 
alone to imitate but to animate ; it is not only art, but power of 
genius, of that genius which, rising to a still higher sphere, and de- 
veloped m a gigantic intellect, would make one understand the 
angry stroke of Michel Angelo's hammer on his " Moses " No 
we repeat, Fagnani is not a cold, realistic painter; the Flemish 
389 



8 JOSEPH FAGNANI. 

school would not have welcomed him among its adepts, but the Ro- 
man and Venetian schools woukl have opened to him their ranks, 
mit only for the ideality of his paintings, but for the rigid coiTe'ct- 
ness of his drawing and the softness and transparency of his color- 
ing. Even Correggio, we dare to say, would not have denied him 
a smile of complacency at the graceful curve of his lines. These 
merits, and many others not less uncommon, are found in all 
tlie nine pictures of which we speak ; but that which we admire 
above all in Fagnani's muses is a something ineffable and suave, 
which impresses you like an agreeable perfume, like a sunbeam ; a 
uniform harmony which is diffused from all these faces and atti- 
tudes, and which, wiihout the slightest resemblance of feature 
among them, would make you say that they are truly all sisters. A 
sliade more in this uniformity, pleasing as it is, and the artist 
woidd have risked falling into monotony. But he has known how 
to avoid this danger by means of delicate artifices of drawing and 
color, with which he has created contrast without dissonance. If 
he had been less adroit this dissonance would infallibly have been 
produced in one of the muses particularly. If he had been in the 
smallest degree induced into giving to the figure of tragedy the 
stern and terrible expression that its usual idea might have sug- 
gested, the effect would have been a complete discordance, like a 
broken line in a parabola. But he has instead impressed upon her 
face the pathetic, not the terrible of the drama ; pity and not 
menace or anger. His Melpomene, in one word, is not a Medea, 
but an Iphigenia. 

"We Avould like to give a detailed description of each one of the 
Muses, but space will not admit, and can only say, ' See and admire 
for yourselves.' " 

We cannot better close this slight biographical sketch than by 
an extract from the N. Y. Tribune relative to a portrait then just 
finished (April, 18G4r), of the late Hon. LIcnry J. Raymond. 
" The pose is easy — the face becoming vivacious and almost con- 
versational the more wc look at it. No test of positive merit is 
390 



JOSEPH FAGNANI. 9 

better than this. Au inferior work of art pleases at the first 
glance, and gradually becomes hard and stolid as we look into 
it and penetrate the little trick of its manufacture. But a true 
picture is one that constantly leaves the frame at our bidding 
and becomes? alive and human in exact proportion to our knowl- 
edge of it. We have any quantity of the first kind, but Mr. 
Fagnani is not among them. He belongs unmistakably to that 
honored few who deal with Nature on her own terms, and not 
according to the price put upon her by the schools." 
391 



JAMES TERWILLTGEE. 




[R. TERWILLIGEE is a native of New Scotland, Albany 
County, New York, where he was born, January 30, 1825, 
He is of Holland and Scotch lineage, and shows the char- 
acteristics of both nationalities in his personal character— persistent 
and uncompromising fixedness of purpose in the prosecution of 
dnty, in whatever circle of life he may be placed. He left his 
native town in 1836, removing to the town of De Witt, Onondaga 
County, which is situated in central New York. Until he was 
eighteen years of age, his time was principally spent in farm-labor, 
and in obtaining the meager education afibrded by the district- 
schools of those days. Indeed, he never attended any other school. 
His love for books and newspapers was manifested early in youth. 
But his tastes were more particularly la sympathy with works of a 
political chiiraeter, and the biographies of eminent statesmen. 
Under such influences, his thoughts were directed to the workings 
of political machinery, and his mind was trained for the work 
which has since largely absorbed his attention. 

But despite his tendencies towards politics, he labored on his 
father's farm, engaging in the dull routine of agricultural toil until 
he was twenty-six years old. In 1851 a new chapter opened in his 
hitherto quiet life of /arm-labor. At that time he invested his 
capital in journalism, and became one of the proprietors of the 
Syracuse Daily Journal, one of the most influential papers in cen- 
tral New York. His connection with that newspaper continued 
until 1855 ; he was then appointed deputy-clerk of the Assembly of 
the State of New York, by R. U. Sherman, then Clerk of the 
House. In 1856, he was appointed journal-clerk of the Senate of 
393 



2 J A M E S T K R W I L 1, 1 G K R . 

his niitivc Suite, luul lieUl tliat appoiutiiifiit tour years. During 
that time he gained the contideiico of influential political men, by 
his peculiar abilities for a position of that kind, and was properly 
rewarded with the appointment of Clerk of the Senate. He was 
elected to that oflice five times without opposition, and wjis deserv- 
edly pronounced the best clerk who had ever discharged the duties 
of that delicate and arduous oflice. He was perfect master of the 
situation. All the duties connected with that post were as familiar 
to him as are the successions of propositions in Euclid to a pro- 
fessor iu college; and his marked executive abilities, his steady 
application to the rapid dispatch of business, and his almost unin- 
terrupted attendance upon the sessions of the Senate, greatly 
enhanced the value of his services. He was held in high estimation 
by both political parties ; and at the close of each term of the Sen- 
ate, elegant testimonials were presented to him by senators, as an 
expression of their appreciation of his abilities and kindness. 

Mr. Terwilligcr has held other posts of honor and responsibility. 
Indeed, the past eighteen or twenty years of his life have been 
mostly employed in arranging the details of either county or State 
campaigns, and in supervising the order of legislative business. 
Mr. Terwilliger was chosen clerk of the Board of Supervisors of 
Onondaga county. New York, in 1849 ; and, from the organization 
of the Republican ptu-ty in 1856 to the year 1800, he was secretary 
of the Onondaga County Republican Committee, when he was 
elected secretary of the Republican State Committee. He con- 
ducted the memorable Presidential campaign of that year in the 
State of New York with > masterly tact and acceptance, and origi- 
nated the plan of sending speakers, by the State Committee, into 
diflerent sections of his State — a practice now generally adopted. 
Mr. Terwilliger has been secretary or acting secretary of the Re- 
publican Union State Committee ever since, except the years 1862, 
1864. 1867, 1869, and 1870. In the canvass of 1864, he was acting 
secretary of the National Union Executive Committee, and ad- 
ditionally aided the State Committee very materially. 
394 



JAMES TKRWILLIGE.E. 3 

When Preston King was appointed collector of the Port of New 
York, the position of private and confidential secretary to the 
collector was proffered to Mr. Terwilliger : this was done without 
any solicitation or previous knowledge of the matter on his part, 
and was especially gratifying, inasmuch as it was a position of so 
much responsibility. Mr. Terwilliger accepted the place, quite as 
much from motives of friendship for Mr. King as otherwise. He 
held that position until after the death of Mr. King, and the 
subsequent appointment of Collector Sinythe, when he resigned. 

In February, 1870, Mr. Terwilliger again purchased an interest 
in the Syracuse Daily Journal^ and is now one of the proprietors 
of that paper. When Hon. Thomas Murphy was appointed col- 
lector of the Port of New York, by President Grant, in 1870, Mr. 
Terwilliger, much against his own wishes, was induced to accept 
the position of special deputy-collector of the Port. He is in 
every way qualified for the office, and his administration of his 
duties gives great satisfaction. 

Probably no other man in the State of New York has so large an 
acquaintance as Mr. Terwilliger has. His familiarity with all the 
ramifications of political forces; his very large acquaintance with 
the leaders of parties in this State and the country at large ; his 
ready comprehension of the right thing in the right place, render 
his services almost invaluable. There is no bluster in his compo- 
sition. The calm dignity of the perfect gentleman always rests 
upon him, and a smile of good nature is rarely missed from his 
face. Wherever he is known he is regarded as a gentleman of 
high moral Christian character, possessing the esteem of his fellow- 
men. In the city of Syracuse, New York, he has an elegant resi- 
dence, where he spends his time when not engaged.in official duties. 
He is. in the highest sense of the word, a self-made man, and is in 
every way worthy of the honors he has received. 
395 



EEV. WILLIAM L. HAEEIS, D. D., LL. D. 

BY T. C. GARDNER, D. D. 



'] ,^T has been reserved by Providence for the times in whicli 
we live to illustrate on a magnificent scale the idea and 

^M* law of progress. The present century, in its historical con- 
nections with all civilized nations, stands out in bold relief to the eye 
of contemplation as being pre-eminent in those inventions, discover- 
ies, arts, sciences, and knowledges that are in closest proximity with 
the main wants and universal well-being of humanity. To an Ameri- 
can, whatever relates to the facts and laws of human prooression 
finds some striking exposition and confirmation in the history of 
his own country. Possessing a continent of unlimited resources • 
enjoying a civilization that embraces every feature of value in the 
European type of culture, and that is enriched by some new and 
unique elements of human development ; blest with a government 
projected on the plane of liberty and equality, and combining in 
the happiest proportions the prerogatives of national authority with 
the rights of municipal states, the American people may properly 
congratulate themselves on having the most enviable inheritance of 
civil and religious immunities that has ever attracted tJie considera- 
tion of the Muse of History. In this freest and grandest country 
that ever lifted its mountains to the skies, that ever poured its rivers 
to the sea, that ever spread its lands of beauty beneath the light of 
the sun, humanity has had the best conditions of growth and pro- 
gress ever secured to its existence. It is not denied that the civil 
arrangements that support ideas of caste and that consolidate privi- 
leged orders with the stability ol' society may be rendered subser- 
vient to the advancement of the race in the arts and sciences and 
industries of life, and become associated also with great characters 
397 



2 REV. WILLIAM L. UAURIS. 

in history. Moiiarcliical systems may boast of proud names and 
splendid niemories in all the departments of human activity and 
national enterprise. To republican institutions, however, belongs 
the palm of furnishing the greatest possible facilities for cultivating 
the faculties of humanity at large, and for developing native genius 
and talent and ability into the manifestations of character at once 
robust, independent, and self-supporting. 

That men of progress, therefore, should grow up out of such con- 
ditions of human existence as afford the freest and broadest scope 
for the play of whatever activities inhere in the life of the race, ir- 
respective of all distinctions of birth or fortune, and untramraeled 
by the restrictions engendered and maintained by old and conserva- 
tive institutions that operate for permanency at the expense of im- 
provement, is what might naturally be expected from the known 
laws of development as imbedded in the constitution of humanity. 
When President Jackson visited New Hampshire in connection 
with his war secretary, General Cass, who looked once more on 
his native State, gazing upon its rugged features and granite forms, 
he exclaimed, '' What do you raise here, general ?" To which 
inquiry the general promptly and admirably replied, "Men, Mr. 
President." And so as we let the eye of reflective admiration and 
phiK)Sophic survey roam over all the States of our Union, we see 
that however much is our indebtedness to nature, we owe intinitely 
more as a people to the great self-made men of the Republic who, 
in the various departments and professions of life, have shaped our 
institutions, have controlled the elements of power and passion in 
our history, have directed the forces of onr national life, and have 
imparted their immortal worth and excellence to the character and 
destiny of the nation. In this respect the East has vastly the pre- 
eminence of the West, as being the original seat of empire and 
learning and the various culture attaching to older communities 
and which ripens into statesmanship. But as " Westward the 
course of empire" has taken its w-iy, the grand elements of charac 
ter have been seen to form into personal life and history, and men 



EEV. WILLI.VM L. HARRIS. 3 

of tlic progressive order have slood up in the history of the great 
"West, vieing in power and influence, if not in polish and culture, 
with the finest embodiments of manhood in the East. 

"Worthy of a permanent place in such high associations of char- 
acter and excellence connected with our history, is the subject of 
this sketch, Rev. "William L. Harris, D. D., LL. D. The great 
State of Ohio enrolls Dr. Harris among her native sons, and the 
year 1817, Nov. 4th., dates the beginning of his earthly history. 
At that time Ohio had a population of about half a million of souls, 
having been a member of the Federal Union only fourteen years. 
At present the population must border closely on three millions of 
inhabitants, and what in 1817 was a new country, with undevel- 
oped resources, with slender educational advantages, with institu- 
tions in their formative state, is now a full-grown commonwealth 
whose civilization furnishes every needful facility for educating its 
citizens for any position in life. It was to the common schools of 
his native State that young Harris was indebted for his elementary 
education. "We can imagine the scenes of his boyhood, as he grew 
up in a frugal and industrious population, robust in his constitution, 
active in rural sports, strong in his demonstrations of purpose, and 
inclined by his mental aptitudes to such studies as were afforded by 
the schools of the people as they then existed. Nothing remark- 
able or noteworthy in his early life here calls for sober narrative 
or illustrative comment. 

In the seventeenth year of his age began his religious life. Camp- 
meetings were at that time scenes of unwonted religious interest. 
They drew large gatherings of the people and exerted a powerful 
influence for good over extended districts of country. The singing, 
the praying, the preaching, took on a type of extraordinary earnest- 
ness and power. The Ohio camp meetings were especially noted 
in the Methodist Episcopal Church for their depth of character, 
their spiritual excellence, and their marked results. "Wonderful 
accounts are preserved in the literature of Methodism of the almost 
superhuman eloquence that characterized the preaching of the 
399 



leading ministers of those timei on such oi;c;i.si(.;is. Many sermons 
preiiehei.1 by tiioso heroes of the Cross to listening thousands in the 
lealy and beautiful temples of. nature have a vivid existence in the 
memories of many living saints, who describe their effects upon the 
hearts of the poo[ilc in language which almost transports one to 
the ago of miracles. Authentic anecdotes are related of highly 
cultivated persons, cool and speculative in their judgments, in some 
instances skeptical in their views, in association also with eminent 
public station, who yielded profound homage to the gospel of peace 
amid these novel circumstances, and ever afterward adhered to 
their religious profession. Doubtless the ardent and impulsive class 
betrayed occasionally some fanatical tendencies in these services of 
the forest sanctuaries, but what was defective was quite insignifi- 
cant, compared with what was truly genuine, in the religious 
character of these extraordinary seasons of worship. It was at one 
of these memorable gatherings of the people for promoting the 
interests of Christianity that William L. Harris committed himself 
to the obligations of a Christian life, and that he acted from intelli- 
gent convictions of duty and from a thorough renewal of his desires 
and affections, is attested by his pei-sonal history from that time to 
the present. 

And then commenced his studious and scholastic preparation for 
that active and pul)lic career of usefulness that for a long series of 
years has reflected so much honor on his character. In September 
183J: he entered Norwalk Seminary as a pupil, then the only literary 
institution of Methodism west of the Alleghany Mountains, and 
North of the Ohio Kiver, where he remained two years under the 
more immediate instruction of its principal, Kev. Jonathan E. 
Chaplin, A.M., a graduate of Yale College, celebrated for the ripe- 
ness of his scholarship, and who was afterward placed in charge 
of one of the branch institutions of the University of Michigan. 

In September, 1836, Mr. Harris, then only in the nineteenth 
year of his age, was licensed by the proper church authorities to 
exercise his gitls as a Christian minister, and after a few months' 
400 



REV. WILLIAM L. UAERIS. , 

pastoral labor in a subordinate sphere, in the ensuing fall he was 
received into the Michigan Conference of Methodist ministers 
whose eoclesiastical jurisdiction then included a portion of northern 
Oh.o, and was assigned to a field of labor in his native State In 
1840, Mr. Harris by a change in ecclesiastical boundaries became 
a member of the Nortli Ohio Conference, and in 1S56 by a like 
arrangen.ent was included in the Delaware, now denominated the 
Central Ohio, Conference, where he still holds his clerical member- 
ship. Mr. Harris' term of service in the Christian pastorate com- 
prised ten years of faithful labor. Thirteen years of his life have 
been devoted to the cause of education. He first held the office of 
Tutor for one year in the Ohio Wesleyan University. At the unani- 
mous request of his Conference and at a great sacrifice of personal 
feeling and preference, in 1848 he accepted the Principalship of 
the Baldwin Institute, now the Baldwin University, near the beau- 
tiful city of Cleveland, where he performed three years of emi- 
nently successful labor, leaving the institution in a very prosperous 
condition. The next year he Imd charge of the academical depart- 
ment of the Ohio Wesleyan University, and was then elected to 
the chair of Chemistry and ^tural History in that well-organized 
institution, discharging its functions with distinguished ability for 
eight years, and for three years of that time instructing the classes 
also in the Hebrew Language and Literature. 

In 1860 Dr. Harris resigned his professorship to accept the office 
of Assistant Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, which position of great' responsibil- 
ity and usefulness he still holds, having been elected to the post for 
the third term by the suffrages of the quadrennial General Con- 
ference. As this General Conference is the highest ecclesiastical ju- 
dicatory known to Methodism, being its only legislative body, and 
composed of delegates from all the A.mual Conferences, member- 
ship in Its councils has always been considered a great honor. Wis- 
dom, integrity, soundness of judgment, and strong and well-balanced 
character are considered prime qualifications in a delegate Dr 

-101 ^ ■ ■ 



(5 R KV. W ILLl AM L HARRIS. 

Harris' eniineiit fitness in these resjiects for an ecclesiastical legis- 
lator, may be estimated from tbe action of his Conference in elect- 
ins; him for four times in succession to represent them in the Gen- 
eral Conference, placing him every time, by the highest number of 
votes cast for any delegate, at the head of his delegation, lie has 
thus been a member of four General Conferences from ISoti to 
IS6S inclusive. At his fii-st appearance in this august body, in- 
vested with the legislative prerogatives of the largest denomination 
of Protestant Christians in the land, Dr. Harris was on the first 
ballot elected its Secretary, and at its every subsequent session has 
been chosen to tbe same honorable position by acclamation. As 
this body is presided over by tlie bishops of the church in turn, 
who simply act as chairman, thus leaving the Conference without 
any permanent bead, the position of Secretary really becomes that 
of chief responsibility in its deliberations. The Secretary is sup- 
posed to understand perfectly its rules and procedures of business 
in all cases, and to be thoroughly versed in parliamentary law, so 
as to be able on the instant to render any needed assistance to the 
Presiding Officer. By his very eminent qualitications for this post 
in all respects, Dr. Harris has come to be considered the guiding 
genius of the Conference, and nearly every act of its legislative 
wisdom for sixteen yeai-s that has commanded the general confi- 
dence of the denomination, has received the direct sanction of his 
capacious and practical mind before finding its place in the statute- 
book of the church. 

Dr. Harris may thus worthily claim our attention as one of the 
chief men of progress in the great Methodist denomination. He 
has been an influential actor in all its important events, during the 
most exciting period in the annals of the church and in the history 
of the nation. His manly and progressive qualities appear in every 
department of his history. He is self-made in the best sense of 
the term. On leaving tiie academic institution where he laid the 
foundations of his compreliensive scholarship, he pursued syste- 
matic courses of study while traversing large districts of ministerial 
402 " " 



REV. WILLIAM L. HARRIS. 7 

abor, carrying his books in his saddle-bags, like many other heroic; 
spirits known to fame, and gaining what assistance he could from 
scholars and men of letters within the circles of his acquaintance 
and friendship, he thus completed the entire curriculum of colle- 
giate studies in addition to a pretty thorough survey of all the 
leading branches of theological learning. Such a man is his own 
university, and his scholastic character bears the stamp of his own 
genius and faculty of instruction, and may of right ask admission 
into any fraternity of noble and cultivated minds that have con- 
tributed to the progress of knowledge and to the well-being of the 
race. Literary institutions sometimes do themselves credit in 
appropriately recognizing merit in public men, and the honors con- 
ferred on Mr. Harris may with the greatest propriety be referred to 
in this light. He received the degree of M. A. from the Ohio 
Wesleyan University in 1848, that of D. D. from Alleghany Col- 
lege in 1856, and that of LL. D. from Baldwin University in 
this present year of grace, 1870. 

Dr. Harris has been one of the champions of right and reform, as 
contending for supremacy against expediency and conservatism in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. The great controversy on the slavery 
question divided the church in 184-4, but as a certain portion of slave 
territory was left by the division in the Northern church, the 
controversy still raged, and agitated the foundations of the whole 
Methodist community up to the very eve of the Presidential proc- 
lamation decreeing the death of slavery. The point in debate 
between the men of progress in Methodism and their conservative 
opponents related in its ultimate bearings to the autliority of the 
General Conference to exclude slaveholding members from the com- 
mimion of the church. When the constitutional aspects of the 
question came fairly under review, Dr. Harris employed his pen in 
discussing the fundamental principles underlying the whole subject, 
first in a series of articles in the newspaper press, and then in a 
systematic treatise in book form, on the " Powers of the General 
Conference." Of this production, taken as a specimen of raethod- 
403 



g RKV. WILLIAM L. HARRIS. 

ical reasoning and demonstrative logic and eloquent forensic ability, 
it is not too much to say that it to-day stands unrivaled in the 
literature of the Methodist Church. As connected with its main 
purpose, it vindicated by unanswerable argument the radical 
measures of the anti-slavery party in the church, and left the con- 
servatives without a resting-place for the soles of their feet. Kev. 
Dr. Wheldon, who, in profundity of intellect, is without his peer in 
the church, pronounced it " one of the ablest constitutional documents 
that has ever appeared iu om- ecclesiastical history, reading very 
much like one of John Mai'shall's decisions, leaving nothing further 
to he said on either side of the question." The treatise really set- 
tled the opinion of the church on the subject, and its doctrines were 
soon incorporated into her legislation, and now have an actual 
existence in her history. 

Iu pei"son, Dr. Harris is a little above the medium height, 
very thickly set, strong in his physical organization, ample in his 
features, massive in intellectual developments, and healthful and 
manly in all the elements of character that can find expression in 
bodily presence. The forces of his whole existence are evenly bal- 
anced. His proportions are on a comparatively large scale, but the 
harmony and symmetry are complete. No complexity of character 
ever hindei-s a thoughtful observer from forming a just estimate of 
the man. Frankness, honesty, integrity, firmness, transparency, 
hearty good-will, and abundant good-nature ai-e revealed in all 
his looks and words and movements. In conversation, he is easy 
and instructive ; in companionship, delightful ; iu friendship, rich 
and princely. As a speaker, he excels in clearness of statement, 
in the argumentative settings of thought, in logical emphasis of 
' expression, and iu the faculty to convey a full impression of his 
subject to the mind of an audience. No mists of dream-land, no 
poetic reveries, no mystic ecstacies of fancy, no meaningless 
demonstrations of speech, ever find place in his public dis- 
coui-se. The sunlight, that brings out hidden beauties, that 
discloses all the outlines and forms of new and familiar objects, 
404 



RKV WILLIAM L. HARRIS. 9 

and that causes all entities to stand out distinctly to your 
vision, flows over the whole landscape of thought as he unfolds 
bis theme. lie addresses himself mainly to your intelligence 
and reason, taking it for granted that you have capacity to 
understand and mark the drift of reflective discourf,e, and that hi.s 
business is to " furnish you with arguments and not with brains." 
A nice turn, of thought will sometimes, as he proceeds, light up 
the features of an audience, and then a paragraph, charming for its 
simplicity, will fall upon your ear, and anon a passage of real 
grandeur and noble eloquence will wing your soul into the heavens 
of God. Dr. Harris is not what is called an easy and fluent and 
l)opular speaker, but he is exceedingly efifective. Liglit and grace- 
ful and fanciful discourse never proceeds from a mind of really 
massive thoughts and conceptions, and that ever seeks to rest its 
utterances on the impregnable basis of first principles. Dr. Harris 
would have made a great lawyer, as his Websterian intellect would 
liave delighted to handle topics of national importance, and to 
expound to a listening senate the principles of constitutional law. 
His clearness of intellectual vision, and capacity to state the lead- 
ing points in a difficult question, and his great grasp of thought 
would have made him eminent in the legal profession and in civil 
statesmanship. It is obvious that the bar and the senate ofler ad- 
vantages to sucb a man quite superior to those of the platform and 
pulpit. The profound understanding, with its rich freightage of 
knowledge that would be considered heavy in the pulpit, would be 
the delight and wonder of the senate. "We do not characterize 
Or. Harris as wanting in power to interest a popular assembly, but 
as really magnificent in those qualities that fit him to address grave 
and deliberative and judicial bodies. 

The crowning glory of this eminent man in current Methodist 
history is, however, as we have ab-eady indicated, to be seen in the 
forces of progress, lodged by nature in his very make and constitu- 
tion. He is a worthy representative of that class of men in eccle- 
siastical life in this country who have nobly stood up for the 
405 



10 RKV. WILLIAM L. HARRIS. 

principles and measures of trutli and freedom in the dark days of 
trial and civil strife, when both the Churcli and the State were in 
danger of being overwhelmed by the agencies of oppression and 
treason. Broad in his sympathies, a giant in his sensibilities, 
large in the fellowship of his soul with humanity and God, he 
never debated the cause of right with the question of hisown personal 
fortunes, nor did he delay his committal to the imperiled principles 
of justice until he saw how the great scales would turn in the 
awful crisis of national destiny, nor did he wait for others to lead 
him into the van of the conflict. His place has been among the 
leaders of public opinion, who have done the best thinking lor the 
nation during the last twenty years, and who have championed 
the cause of right and humanity to a successful issue, and who now 
occupy an enviable position among the benetactors of their race. 
For ten years he has been associated with that very celebrated 
divine, Dr. Durbin, in supervising and directing the interests of the 
great Methodist Missionary Society, that steadily contemplates the 
conquest of the world to the Cross. Here his organizing and ex- 
ecutive genius, and his great capacity for work lind abundant 
scope, and being now in the prime of his strength and in the 
maturity of his powers, he has yet before him a career of varied 
nnd important service in the noblest department of Christian 
history. 

406 




^ 



^Y^t^-.TK 



GEN. J. H. STPHER. 

•ENERAL SYPHEE, of Louisiana, is a native of Penn- 
sylvania, where his ancestors settled at the beginning of 
i^i. the eighteenth century, coming from the German Rhine 
country. His grandfather, Abraham Sypher, removed 
from the Valley of the Brandywine, at the close of the Revolu- 
tionary War, and founded a home in the Valley of the Susque- 
hanna, in the territory that afterward became Perry County. This 
homestead farm was inherited from the original settler, by John 
Sypher, his youngest son, who was bom in the year 1800. John 
was the father of three sons, Abraham J. Sypher, late an engineer in 
the United States Navy, and now a member of the Louisiana Sen- 
ate ; Josiah R. Sypher, an author and journalist of note ; and Jacob 
H. Sypher, the subject of this sketch, who was born July 22, 1837. 
Both father and mother of these sons died early in life, and left their 
children to themselves. By personal efforts, each acquired a liberal 
education, strengthened by the varied experience and practical ap- 
plication ever incident to the struggle up from the common level to 
high attainments. The younger of the brothers whose name heads 
this article was, successively the "farm boy," the "boat boy," tiie 
"country school teacher," and the academy "professor." At the 
first call to arms, at the beginning of the late war, he entered the 
national army for the defence of the Union, enlisting as a private 
soldier, April 18, 18G1. In active service during the entire period 
of the war, he rose, step by step, through all the grades of the army, 
to the rank of Brigadier General, to which he was promoted for 
" faithful and meritorious services during the war." He participated 
in all of the great campaigns and battles of the Army of the Cum- 
407 



2 GEN . .1 . II . S Y r U EB. 

berland, in Kontuckv, Tennessee, and Geori^ia, among which were 
Mill Springs, Fort Donelson, Perry ville, Shiloli, Stone River, Chat 
tanooga, and Ciiieaniauga. Subsequently he was transferred to the 
Department of tlie Gulf, where he commanded the Reserve Artil- 
lery, luid was President of the Examining Board for the examina- 
tion of ot}i('ei"s for colored troops. lie was mustered out of service 
on the ioth of November, 1S65. In January, ISGO, he settled in 
lAiuisiaiia, having determined to mjvko his permanent residence in 
that State, and engaged in the cotton planting. In the midst of 
other duties he had road law, and had been admitted to the bar. 

General Sypher, its he had been e:u-nest and ethcient in assisting 
to maintain the Union of the States, and the integrity of the nation, 
was equally active in eflorts to reconstruct the government of his 
adopted State, and to build up her disorganized industries. The 
people, duly appreciating his services in this new field, resolved to 
make him one of their representatives at the national capit^U. He 
was elected a member of the Fortieth Congress, was re-elected to 
the Forty-tii-st, and also to the Forty-second Congress, as a Repub- 
lican. At Washington he advocated a liberal and generous policy 
of internal improvements, and amnesty to the South. Ho urged the 
rebuilding of the levees on the Mississippi River, by Government 
aid, and the grmiting of subsidies for the construction of a Southern 
Pacific Riiilroad. In a speech deli\ ei*ed in Congi-ess, December 15, 
ISTO, he sjiid: "Let tJie Republiciui party, through its representa- 
tives in Congress, remove all the political disabilities of Southern 
men ; let them, by wise legislation, aid in building up tliat beautiful 
country, devastated by war; let the people feel the fostering care of 
the General Government ; aid us to build and maintain our levees, 
to construct new railroads, to keep open the mouth and improve 
the navigiition of the ilississippi River, to encourage labor, capital, 
and divei-sified industry in the South, and it will accomplish more 
towai-d the development of a true sentiment of loyalty to the na- 
tional Government than hiUf a century of prescriptive legislation." 

Gen. Sypher is quite a young man. He possesses a ^eat deal of 
408 



energy and perseverance, and a large share of that spirit of progres- 
sion, to the exercise of wliich there cannot but much benefit enure 
to tlie section of tlie country in wliich, as a public representative, his 
talents and abilities are devoted. 



4oy 




h 



? 



y, i)h,oi^i. ' c'^ 



EICHARD T. MEERIOK. 



15 /CT is eighty years since Daniel Carrol], Notloy Young, David 
^y>f* Burns and Samuel Davidson, the original proprietors of 
^^'<^ the District of Columbia, surrendered their titles, and since 
the Capital of the United States was established here. The District 
was surveyed by three commissioners: Thomas Johnson, David 
Stuart, and Daniel Carroll ; and, in a letter bearing date George- 
town, September 9th, 1791, to Major L'Enfant, the engineer, these 
commissioners inform him that they had agreed to call the Federal 
District the Territory of Columhia. By a recent act of Congress, they 
now have for the first time the form of a Territorial Government, 
and for the first time in their history, the people of this District have 
the privilege of being represented in the Congress of the United 
States by a Delegate. 

On the evening of the 2l8t ultimo, one hundred and ten delegates, 
representing the Democratic and Conservative strength of the Dis- 
trict, met in convention, and on the first ballot unanimously nomi- 
nated for the position of Delegate in Congress, the Hod. Richard T. 
Merrick. 

In making a brief sketch of the life and public character of this 
distinguished gentleman, we are deeply impressed with the idea that 
by his nomination, a profound remark of Montesquieu, to the effect 
that the people, " from facts and things obvious to the sense, are 
qualified for choosing those whom they are to invest with a part ol 
their authority," has an apt illustration. Mr. Merrick was born 
in Charles county, Maryland, and is descended from one of tlie oldest 
411 



g RICllAKD T. MKUKICK. 

nnd proudest iiimilies of tliat ancient common wealth. His father, 
tlic Hon. Williiim D. Merrick, for many years lield positions of high 
jiublic trust, nn I was a Senator in Congress from tlic State of Mary- 
land from 1838 to 1845. Ho died in tliiscity in 1857. Ho was tlie 
author of the cheap postage system. During his Senatorial career 
ho wus associated with the ablest men of the country, and numbered 
among his pei-sonal and ])olitical I'riends the great names of John 
Bell, Daniel Webster, James K. Polk, R. M. T. Hunter, Robert C. 
Winthrop, John Tyler, Richard M. Johnson, William Henry Har- 
rison, George M. Dallas, Millard Filmore, William L. Marcy, 
Willio P. Mangum, Tom Corwin, Henry W. Hilliard, Percy 
Walker, John McP. Berrien, Thomas G. Pratt, the Kennedys, 
Reverdy Johnson, Roger B. Taney, John J. Crittenden, Henry Clay, 
and their illustrious contemporaries — all renowned for their virtue, 
prudence and learning. It was in such a school, amid the associa- 
tion of the immediate descendants of the Fathers of the Republic, 
that Mr. Merrick, with a mind naturally and peculiarly apt in the 
study of jurisprudence, learned his first great lessons of respect for 
the Constitution, and for the supremacy of the law. He belongs to 
a family of lawyers, to a race who think, with Plutarch, that the 
" law is the king of mortal and immortal beings," and with another 
writer, " that in the education of youth a love of the law should bo 
encouraged in order that a love of country may be established." 

Mr. Merrick attended Georgetown College for a few years, and at 
the age of sixteen was graduated at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. 
He then went to Frederick, and entered as a law student the office 
of his brother, the Hon. William M. Merrick, (now a Representative 
in Congress from the State of Maryland.) While pursuing his legal 
studies there, and not yet admitted to the bar on account of his 
minority, the war with Mexico ensued, and he was commissioned by 
President Folk as captain of the Third United States Dragoons. 
He served eighteen months in Mexico with General Taylor, and at 
the close of the war returned to Mar) land, was admitted to the bar, 
412 



BICnARD T. MERIilCK, 3 

and commenced his brilliant professional career in Charles county. 
In 1849 he was elected as a Whig to the Legislature of Maryland. 
He cerved on the Committee on Federal Kelations. There were 
many able men in that Legislature, and Mr. Merrick became promi- 
nent among them as an eloquent debater, and as a sound constitu- 
tional lawyer. Two years afterwards Mr. Merrick removed to Balti- 
more, and at once had a large and lucrative practice. As a Whig 
he took an active part in the politics of the State. He stumped the 
State of Virginia for General Scott, and met the great debaters for 
General Pierce, among others, Cliarlus James Faulkner, with marked 
success. 

After the election of General Pierce to the Presidency, the Know- 
Nothing organization arose in Baltimore. Henry Winter Davis 
became the candidate of tha Know-Nothing party for Congress, and 
Henry May the candid.ite for the Djmocracy. Notwithstanding the 
great personal friendship that existed bstween Mr. Davis and Mr. 
Merrick, the natural conservatism of the latter induced him to give 
his support to Mr. May, and from that day to this Mr. Merrick, 
politically, has been identified with the national Democratic and 
Consci-vative element of the country. He has had but little to do 
with politics, however, for the law has had the greater charm. In 
1855-G, in connection with J. S. Stockett and Oliver Miller, Esqs., 
he prepared and published a digest of Maryland Reports. In 1857, 
declining ths position of District Attorney for Baltimore, tendered 
him by Mr. Buchanan, he removed to Chicago, and associated him- 
self in the practice of his profession there with the Hon. C. Beck- 
with, then the acknowledged head of the Chicago bar, and afterward 
the Chief Justice of Illinois. Previous to this, Mr. Merrick had 
made the acquaintance of Stephen A. Douglas, and from that time 
till the day of that great and lamented statesman's death, the most 
intimate and confidential relations existed between them. As a 
member of the Illinois delegation, Mr. Merrick attended the Charles- 
ton Convention. In the great debates of that convention he was 
413 



I B I C n A U n T . M E R R I C K . 

conspicuous ; counseled motloration, and opposed all cxtrcrao 
S.nithern measures. In the B.iltimoro convention bo was selected 
to speak for Illinois, and when the lion. Benjamin F. Butler with- 
drew from the convention to join the forces of Breckenridgo, ho 
denounced him as a conspirator in terms of bitter invective and 
sarcasm. This spoooh created in the convention a decided sensa- 
tion. 

For Douglas ho stumped the Western States. After Mr. Lin- 
coln's election, Mr. Merrick again devoted himself to his profession, 
and was emj>loyed as counsel by railroad and other heavy corpora- 
tions. In 1SC4 Mr. Merrick visited Washington. Fortune, ever 
kind, smiling and propitious to him, now presented her choicest gift, 
for here be led to the altar the lovely and talented daughter of our 
fellow-townsman, James C, McGuire, Esq. With his brido he 
visited Europe, making the tour of France, Italy, Spain and Ger- 
many. In the spring of 1S65, Mr. Merrick, having determined to 
devote himself exclusively to bis profession, cam3 to Washington, 
selecting it as tha broadest field for prastico. Although Washing- 
ton is much less in population, and in commorcial and financial 
resources thia s^m3 othar citic5, tha questions arising here are mere 
varied and of mare public importance than these ceming before the 
courts in any other portion of the country. The great lawyers from 
all sections of the country are realizing this fact, which tends to 
make Washington the theater of great legal efforts. It would 
consume too much spaeo to speak in detail of the celebrated causes 
Mr. Merrick has tried during the six years of his residence here. 
Suffice it to say that in the District courts and in the Supremo 
Court of the United States he has appeared as counsel in nearly all the 
most importiint cases, and with a brilliant and unvarying suceess. 
Standing in the very front rank of the bar, he is one of its strongest 
pillars, and one of its chief ornaments. To borrow an idea from a 
learned writer in giving a description of Lord Mansfield, we say of 
Mr. Merrick: he has pre-eminently a legal intellect, great clearness 
414 



of thought, accuracy of discrimination, eoundncss of judgment and 
strength of reasoning, united toascientific knowledge of jurisprudence, 
a large experience in all the intricacies of practice, unusual courtesy 
and ease in the dispatch of basiness, and extraordinary power.? of 
application. 

To illustrate how thoroughly Mr. Merrick is governed by the 
teachings of the Fathers in hio expressions of love for tha Union, 
we here quote hLs speech. 

Mr, Merrick said : 

f^'H*,; ^""l""^"- Before responding to the ncntimonta that have hcen ciT>rcs<!cd and 
to tnc nommutioa whmh hw been ten-J..Tc<l me, allow me to mk tS tt^Silbn 
which liiivo been pa»3cri by the convention be read resoiuiion 

The .Secretary rea4 the rcwlutions. 
,nlL"!.?;L'.t»?i;L^?fi'?A??'^ Gentleman of the Convention: Allow me to 




I agked that the regolutiong mi-jht be reid, gentlemen, In order that I mi-ht know 
with ccrtumty before 1 responded to your c.Il, whether there wm p--rfi?ta«3 
U^l'^Z'"' ^f f° t-^" P^T''''"? "P"° ^^''""^ the camrral.n war, to be^ducted There 
U harmony of feeling and entire accord of nentiment between u«; and on the nrinri .^« 
announc^cl m vour platf.rra, the greut Democratic and Coa^rvative nartv of thu 
i^th H"'"/T*r '»>« V'''"<=' f^'^™ discredit, and restore ZTh^oroltll'^nl,^ 
much tamLsheJ through the ye^r^ of Radical miiirule. fApolauBe 1 ' 

I endorse most earnestly the resolution which says that this District zhould be free 
from the perturbations of p irty politics. In the exercinr, of apower^edaUy dele ./^ 
by the Conntitution, the fathers of the country dedicated this Diftrfct -li h,iu .^ 
neutral ground to the whole people of the Unit/j Sta^ l"^ vi aluon ^'ours 
it was natura and necesstiry. and to be foreseen by all men, that there i^.Vldte k^l 
prejudices and opinions which would not be in sympithy with re.note an^l ffcre^t ^ 
tioas of the country; and thi« District, deJicat^ to the entire Svi^fia^^^^ 
M. of?h n'^u^iT,"."^^" "P'T"" "-'S" «"'«' "P»° common Voundt'aTf Ihe .^ 
de of the Unite J btates assemble in political and g iial converse in the midst cfrn^ 

fc;'^^'evTy°oril^'s?Jlt"„!^'^'"''^''^'''«P-'^'^=-'^'--''-'^ 

6tI*i^?dl''wjfi1^i"• <«'^'''J«'»!'>? ^ l-^l Kovemment for the District, was, as I under- 
Btool It, designed to carry out Ihit original intention. Uy that bill it warnrovianyl 
.at the President of the United States should have the appointmen of cTrfiin of th^ 
STnH'Th^Ti'''"' ""f *^.^. co"»™="ed the politic "m.nag;rment^f your 10(^1 
r.w h' ''"'*,,^ •he people should, in the exercl% of a power unduly reitricteJbvt^o 
,r7:. ^r^'n "/?'" '^'u '-■'*=.=' '^^'^in other of those functionaries I un"ereto J and 
believed at the time that it was the purpose of Congress ia mssinff th?/„„, „„^^ 
assure to this District a perfect freedom f?om theStSs of ^r ; ,x> ittL ami sSu^ 

r^^i'^r^ijjri^y'i^t^jikf^^^ir^dfeil 

41.3 



UICIIARD T. MEKRICK, 



In the National Legislature for this groat Cnpitol, the common property of the entire 
nation. [Great appUiiifc.] 

But that hope wa3 Jelusivc, and we have scon with pain ond regret the or;ani:intion 
of our Government upon apartizan basis, and its powers committed exclusively to the 
men of one alone of the great politiail orK.iuizations of the ountry; and we have 
learned with yet deeper regret that the executive of the Territory lia-s made, in the 
language of resolution, the open avowal, in his party convention, that he intended to 
administer the functions of his ofUce in the exclusive interest of the Republican party. 
That party convention thus assembled, which endeavored, and, to some extent, 
accomplished, the consolidation of the p.irty in co-operation with the Territorial 
execHiive, made manifest to the people that it was their purpose to arrogate to them- 
selves in their party organization the exclusive aduiinistration of the Diitrict of Colum- 
bia, for their own benefit, and without regard to the general interest of the people. 
When the Democratic and Conservative people of the District beheld that mischievoiiB 
scheme in process of formation and execution, they wore called upon by every 
sentiment of manly integrity, patriotic devotion, an 1 personal houir, to organize 
aroiuid an opposing standard, and frustrate the iniquitjus ;md diabolical machination. 
[Great applause.] 

It is that scheme which you have assembled tofrnstrato— that bad purpose y^u have 
gatlurod your strength to defeat. It is tv t f r inrtv alone, or for p.arty at all, that 
you nuct' I resard this Convention a; ' i v itive body of tho whole Demo- 

cratic anil Conservative element of tli. I i , i i/ the sentiments of the Demo- 

crats and Conservatives, and declaring' i ■ ' n i- ii i imrpose that the local adminis- 
tration 01 this District shall not be couiine i to a p vi ty, and administered in the inter- 
est of a faction; but that it shall be administered for the benetit of the entire people, 
ond that representative men of both parties shall appear in that administration. 
[Applause.] 

My fellow-citizens, I esteem the Territorial Governor as a most worthy and estima- 
ble gentleman, and I appreciate his high character as an honorable man; but he has 
been too weak to resist wliero he should have overcome, and pissively submitted 
where he should have controlled. Ho has sacrificed the high public spirit of the man 
and citizen upon the altar of n tyranical party domination. [Applause.] Under 
these circumstances you are c.illed upon, with a view to tlio protection of your inter- 
ests and your property, to guard against the danger to both from a locil administration 
left unchecked in the hands of one political party. Althou;;h i)rivilegcd to vote only 
for the lower House and for a Delegate in Con.cress, the Democratic and Conservative 
party will put over this perilous and mischievous combination, faithful watchers in 
that liiwer House, who will defend our interests and protect our property. [Great 
cheering.] 

We will do more; we will vindicate ourselves from the attempted wrong upon the great 
Conservative and Democratic party of tho nation by sending to the Coniiress cf the 
United States, to represent this people, a representative man of tho Democratic anJ 
Conservative party. [Long and continued applause.] 

I believe, and 1 trust I am not mistaken, tliat Governor Cooke will be able to exer- 
cise a largo control in our behalf with his Republican friends in Congress; but standing 
alone, or standing beside a man representing the same party, and entertaining the 
same partizan opinions with himself. I should fear that the generous sympathy of 
wronged conservatism would be cliilled at his approach. It is not alone to that party 
which is now in the majority in Congress that the people of this District must appeal. 
They must appeal to both parties upon the great principle that I have announced, and 
that your resolution sets forth, that this District is free from party perturbation, 
nnd that all we ask is that the representatives of the people will recognize 
this Capitol as the Capitol and the property of the pe:i|)le of the United States; and in 
the name of tlie people build it up and decorate and adorn it as the pride and honor of 
the nation. [Great applause] 

I believe, gentlemen, (though I make no pledges, lost possibly disaster and failure 
should cause me pain,) that as your lepresentative, receiving in behalf of your interests 
the cordial co-operation of Governor Cooke, I should bo able, in the Congress of the 
United States, to accomplish some beneficial results for my constituents. If bo will so 
present with me the case of this District, and secure for me froTU his especial Republi- 
can friends a fair hearing, I pledje to him and to you the cordial sympathy of the 
Democratic and Conservative representatives of the people. [Groat applause.] And 

416 



what wi I lie my position atid duty in the office to which you have calleJ me ? I shall 
appear in Con^^rcss as the elected candidate of the Democratic and Conservative voters 
of the Diotiict, but not as a partizan. You, in part, by this nomination despoil me of 
my political power. Yuu ca'.l u\t; nmv, my friends, as many of you have done individ- 
ually before, to l)e, not y'lm |i> ; .mil .nlvocatc, but the advocate of your entire com- 
munity. You call me iis i' ^ i .1 man is called, to plead your case before a 
judge and jury in who <r 1 . i I i li iiave no voice. In the courts of justice my 
duty is limited before thr jn ! ; ' ili i-i' ciitation and argument of my rase With 
the jury in the box, 1 have nou-jlit to do, but to develop an- 1 ili . i. , in- ,,,. i , involved 
in the issue they are cmpxnnelod to try. On the Hoor of t'un i ;: . ,. \ .te. I 
am there, if there at all, and there I shall be — [great and Ion- ■ n i i i ; . i 1 lusc.]— I 
am thcic as your advocate, to plead your cause, to meet wliaii \. , . ;,:ii , s may be 
brought J -ini ' VIII, I I defend you whenever you maybe assailed, to expound your 
rights III! ;:i . lilt justice demands as your own ; and, speaking to judges and 
jurors ill I I -; iiiouof whose ultimate judgment I have no vote, but winning 
them to ni_\ riiiivn iii.il. ill your behalf by all the persuasions of argument and forcj of 
logic that 1 can coniaiaud. In this office, I must so bear myself as to make for you 
friends of the men of all parties, and whilst firmly maintaining my own opinions, avoid 
acerbity by a proper respect for the opinions of others. Truth, justice, and the inter- 
ests of the people of the District of Columbia, without regard to party or race, shall be 
the rule and object of my conduct and my labors. 

They are widely mistaken who think our interest is most wisely consulted by elect- 
ing only those who are in harmony with the controlling party in Congress. The period 
■when that party dominated without restraint is passed. The decade through which its 
unlimited authority extended has ended. It commenced in March of 18G1; it ended in 
March of 1871. [Great applause.] 

Light breaks from the East. It tinges the horizon that girds the Granite Hills. It 
is the star of the morning, presaging the coming day. lie who can not read its 
glorious prophecy slumbers too slothfuUy upon the past to be trusted for action in the 
present. [Applause.] 

I have said that I believed I should receive in my Congressional labors the harmon- 
ious co-operation of Governor Cooke, and I am reasonably confident that I shall in all 
things save one. Whilst I concur most heartily in the principles contained in the 
resolution of which I have already spoken, I concur even yet more heartily in the prin- 
ciples of that other resolution, which, whilst it deals with justness and kindness to the 
colored man, maintains that, in our public schools, there should be preserved that 
distinction between the races ordained by the eternal law of God, which no legislative 
power can ever annul or set aside. [Long-continued applause.] 

I wish it would be distinctly understood that, recognizing the rights of all men as 
secured imder the Constitution of the United States and its amendments, 1 should favor 
no movement contemplating a disturbance of those guiranteed to the colored race. I 
know that there are some persons who are impressed with the possibly just conviction 
that the fifteenth article of amendment to the Constitution was adopted through un- 
fair, unjuet, and violent means, and does not now properly constitute a part of the 
organic law of the nation. For myself, I deal with the present, not with the past ; 
with things as I find them, not as I would make them. I find that amendment in 
the Constitution duly certified as part of the instrument. There let it remain undis- 
turbed. Whatever wrong may have been peipetrated by the measures adopted to 
secure its ratification; whatever unfair, and unjust, and irregular means may have been 
resorted to by its advocates, it has now been accepted and acted imder by the people of 
the country, and should not be interfered with. 

But each r.ice has a right to regulate for Itself its social relations with the other, and 
any attempt to coerce, by legislative authority, the admixture of the races, is an out- 
rage upon both, and a violation of the established order of nature and society. 

The white and colored races are distinct. Why they are so— why the Creator made 
one man black and the other white— we know not ; but the fact is apparent, and the 
distinction manifest. The question is not one of superiority or inferiority but of 
dilTerence only . " To assert separateness is not to declare inferiority in either ; that 
would be to draw the illogical seijuence of inferiority from difference only." 

When, therefore, we declare a right in each race to maintain separate relations, with 
due regard to equality of rights, it is not prejudice, nor animosity, nor injustice, but 
mm[ily that each should be allowed to follow the in-stinctsand disposition of his nature, 

417 



niUllAUl) V. MKKinCK. 



in olKHlien.-o (■> :\ l.iw i ..i'.i. u' I by tlio Ore nor, hikI uik' ■ iv; li i,- 1 t . vi .1 ro (.1 1' law 
by llio oil i^ ir> V n ■ 1 I . : luimiiii U-^isliition. " Tlu' w , 1 , . ^ n 1 i . . ii,:i h," 
iii>a ivll thill N ■ ^ > . .,, I . llu- ilisorotiim iiiul jiulguu'iii ,i> ;i: 1 v, m, .lU !,■ i-laivo 
rostr.iiiU. i< .., I u, .:'^ ,1, ... .s.vl of, if lofliilouo by lu-iil.u.w ...mi-,. [Ai...! ,u,.vJ 

lOnti'iliiiiiiii- llR'Ji' oi>ini.>iis, 1 c:in nol cdiuoiit to t!io coi-iv^vl ailmixlmo ol whito nod 
cob>i\' I iliil livii in the public soIiojIs of tlio cjuutry. [liicit iippluiiso.J 

111 tlio laii;ii:vv;i' of yoiir loailutijn, suoli i» sclioino woulJ rot.iv.l tUo odua\t!o:i and 
ton.l to tlio iljiiumliaxtiou of tlio clilldion of bjtli of tlio racoj— baj;et aniinooitloj, 
di^uDii jiou and dist-jid iu tliu iustilutioit, iiad oud iu tUo tiail dojtructiou of tho su'a.'om 
of piiblio sclio.ils. 

1 do not bolii'vo (ho bottor clnsa of colored citizans dcsiro tho ndoptlou of Bich u 
intMS'i'v '111 111 II III -V i>;i:>'-.>'iitii tint tlioir inlorost would bo battor subseivad by 
the il -' 1 M I ■ 1 i I I II I A liait'd 10 I'duoitioual purpjsos in tbo ?;euoroua uiauuer 
pro;.. 1 1 I 1 , ; ; . ;i li.uo lul.tpiv'd. tliiui by any BucU ompirioiU expariiueat 

OS 111 I' i' ' i , . I . I.i:,.,il [larly of tUisliistriol. 

fori .111 ■ u u , 1. I : ,,:v.VO UlO llO^XlSsity of OOluill;,' i 1 1:1 I .■ ' 11 1 I .Ml!: ! :■ ■ ,\ , 1.1 -nt 

ill it. .1.1 . , .11. would bj so re.vly to iv.\. '1 ; i!i ii, .1 . , i,--,s if 

Uiey li.i 1 1 ' . %!■ :.. ui' its boneiioiont operation In i . 1 ...i ,■ i.ia ;. ^o," 

and" appl iiiM' 1 It is M>iy well for uion wlio nro Im.d up n i.u- ii<,.i...\3i..i i,.umK. and 
thaaeouiiiulatiou of wealth, to look with pliilosophio.kl iiuliilorduoti upon tlio practical 
working of n iiriii'iplo ilio onuiiciatii.m of which may aid tho nccomplishiuoat of party 
purples, when it is to bo oxporionc.d by others thin thouiselvas; but if they, ia the 
varying chances of life, should ba brought within the r.uiw of its praclijiU opjiatioa, 
th.'i-o would boasin;j;ular and mpid change of he.u-t, and laudable uioditicatiouof sunti- 
Qiout. [Lau'T'iiter and applause. | 

TU.'SLluviruinl of thii Pistrictisintendo.i to educate the chil lio:i of the Pistiict, 
andi- :> iilli 'l' fi .-■ ..ii . linn- for their d;uly broad and need tlu- ; . i .iii; I mlof 
tlu' 1' '■ - I I 1 I 1 '.ling theolYsprinojef their loins Is;' v li ' iho 

lab.Mii I \ , ; ; i\ i ..■; 1 invoke for liiin protoctioung.uus! '.11 .. . . i.mh 

of nit 1 ■ > 1 1 .s. . ]. .1 . ; I . aoprivo hiia and his childron of tho t > 1 n 1 , 1 ...^ iuni 
ofhiscnuitiT. lAi.piauso.l 

My foUow-citizous, upon the principles which I have indicated I shall conduct this 
c-impaign. I shall avuid party strife, so fir as I can. I shall avoid all bitterness. I 
shall sjou to impi-ess tbo public mini with tho correctness of tho principles you have 
nniiounco.l iu your platform, and with your cj-oporation and ounjit aid in liolialf of 
the oxo.Hiliou of the purpose you have dechued in my nomination, I feal coiilidout that 
I sh ill bear your burner to Miccess, [Great applause.] And in the oltice to wliich I 
am exiled tj-ni.;ht, 1 shall euloivors.i to bear mys.'lf tU.at, whilst I miiutiiu justice 
and vindicate tho truth, I shiUl avoid tho cxeation of party animosity, by turning 
aside from all uunocessary pirticipation iu public atfairs, nnJ looUiag ulono to your 
intorest'i. I'rom this high duty 1 shall not be withdrawn, cither by the seductive 
porsuasion of friouds or the intimidation of foes. I Ain>'.ausf. 1 

I ixgain thank you, my friends, for tho high c>>ii. 1 .!, 1 \ >. 1 ': ivopaid me, and will 
add one other cir.-iimst inoe wMch makes it esp.vii , ..,,,. my heart. 

The earliest iwolleclioiis of luy life aro os-ooiii i i - .i y, un I about it are 
gathered m.uiy of my fondest and most sacrod dome .k le n ;i. i.iuees 

When I came back to reside among you, I felt tu.it I iv.is oming to tho arms of 
fViond^; but [ never hoped that I should fool tho w.irin outpourings of such generous 
friondshio and conlideuco as I have experienced here to-nigUt. Aly earliest reccllec- 
tions aro associated, as 1 have said, with this Capitol. It makes the compliment d.^ar 
to me, and will make the duty which that coiiiplimeut involves more proud and 
pletwaut A jKirt of that duty will bn to endeavor to inculcate throughout the country, 
by diM:us4ous in Congress on questions connected with your interests, a truer apprecia- 
tion of this sireat politic.il metropolis on the part of the t>eople of our country. 

1 shall ondoAvor to awaken in the p.iblic heart an all'eetiou for the sacred and- too 
much disregarded traditions of the nation, which bind men to tho past, and check 
tliom in a reckless pMgress to an unknown future. These traditions are sacre lin the 
history of America, and d^^:on^te this Capitol upjn its every page. In this Capitol our 
jurists have sat for nearlv three-quaittt^ of a century, expjunding the Constitution 
of the United States. Within the walls of that uuuble pile on the Capitolino Hill of 
the Kepublic, the noblest and most fervid cloiiucuco that ever fell £rom mortal tongue 
418 



EICHAED T. MEREICK. 



has Bounded to the country and to the world. Generation after generation of statca- 
men, now pone to their tombs, have trod your Btreets. Treaty after treaty,. binding 
this nation to the nations of the world, bears (he designation of Washington as tin: 
plicc of its ratification. The hiatory of your city is the history of the nation. And 
piralyzed forever be the arm that would attempt to drag our Government from ami I 
tbes3 holy memories, [Great applause.] It can not be done. Teach the people of tho 
country these traditions; teach them to feel how a people arc clevateil by chwishing;! 
veneration and love for the memories of the past, and you teach them to love the city 
of Washington as they lov3 the hallowed memory of him whose name it bears. [Great 
cheering.] 

Wiien CoiiBtantine, seeking to efffict an eternal monument to himself, in the temeri- 
ty of his rash vanity, removed the uripital of Home from the banks of the Tiber to the 
shores of the Bjsphorus, he sowed the seeds of internecine strife, and but a few years 
pa8.sed before the mighty empire was snndercd. A few decades more, and the barba- 
rian reveled in the lialls of the Cajsars. Such a fate does not await us. The Ameri- 
can Capital will never be dr.igged away from the traditions of this city. As long as 
the waters of the Potomac lave the tomb of Washington, the Capital will stand upon 
its banks, [Great applaiiso.J 

Fellow-citizens, again I thanlc you. During this campaign now opening to-night, 
I shall meet you often. My duty shall be done. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Merrick's speech three cbccrs were given, 
and the meeting immediately adjourned, amid the greatest 
enthusiasm. 

How forcibly this language reminds one of the words of President 
Adams, in his message to Congress when it first assembled, in 
November, 1800. He said, " I congratulate the people of the United 
States on the assembling of Congress at the permanent scat of their 
Government; and I congratulate you, gentlemen, on the prospect of 
a residence not to be changed." * * '' " You will consider it as the 
capital of a great nation, advancing with unexampled rapidity in 
arts, in comaiereo, in wealth, and in population, and possessing 
those resources which, if not thrown away or lamentably misdirected, 
will secure to it a long course of prosperity and self-government." 
The House, in reply to President Adams, said : " Nor can we on 
this occasion omit to express a hope that the spirit which animated 
the great founder of this city may descend to future generations, 
and that the wisdom, magnanimity, and steadiness which marked 
the events of his public life may be imitated in all succeeding ages." 

In the same speech of acceptance, and with equal patriotism, 
Mr. Men-ick says; 

" I shall endeavor to awaken in the public heart an affection for 
the sacred and too much disregarded traditions of the nation, which 
419 



10 RICnAHD T. Mi;niucK. 

bind men to the pnst and check tlicm in a reckless progress towards 
nn unlvnowu luturo. These traditions are sacred iu the history oi' 
America, and decorate this Capital upon its every page. In this 
capital our jurists have sat for nearly three quarters of a century, 
expounding the Constitution of the United States. Within the 
walls of that marble pile on the Capitoliue Hill of the Republic., 
the noblest and most fervid eloquence that ever fell from mortal 
tongue has sounded to the country and to the world. Gem ration 
after generation of statesmen, now gone to their tombs, have trod 
your streets. Treaty after treaty, binding this nation to the nations 
of thd world, beai-s the designation of Washington as the place of 
its ratification. The history of your city is the history of the na- 
tion. And paralyzed forever bo the arm that would attempt to 
drag our Government from amid tLese holy memories. It cau not 
be done. Teach l ho people of the country these traditions; teach 
them to feci how a people are elevated by cherishing a veneration 
and love for the memories of the past, and you teach them to love 
the city of Washington as they love the hallowed memory of him 
whose name it bears." 

That pure and eminent statesman, Rohert C. Winthrop, of Mass., 
said in 1S48, when laying the corner-stone of the Washington Mon- 
ument: " Build it to the skies; you can not outreach the loftiness 
of his principles ! Found it upon the massive and eternal rock; you 
can not make it more enduring than his lame ! Construct it of the 
peerless Parian marble; you can not make it purer than his life ! 
Exhaust upon it the rules and principles of ancient and modern art; 
you can not malce it more proportionate than his character !" This 
is the elevated language of such as have boen taught to love the 
laws — of such as arc fit to become the custodians of the peoples' 
authority. 

We have contrasted above the thoughts of Mr. Merrick with simi- 
lar thoughts from distinguished exemplais of patriotic devotion to 
the whole country. In all these extracts there is a perfect sincerity, 
420 



EICHARD T. MEHRICK. 11 

a pervading depth of truth, and a beauty of expression that belonga 
only to the really good. 

In presenting these tokens of Mr. Merrick's character, we feel that 
it would be unjust to omit a brilliant advocate's definition of the du- 
ties of an advocate. He says : 

" On the floor of Congress I have no vote. I am there as your 
advocate, to plead your cause, to meet whatever charges may be 
brought against you, to defend you whenever you may be assailed, 
to expound your rights, and maintain what justice demands as your 
own; and speaking to judges and jurors in the determination of 
whose ultimate judgment I have no vote, hut winning tliem to my 
convictions in your beh-alf by all the persuasions of argument and 
force of logic that I can command. In this oflice I must so bear my- 
self as to make for you friends of the men of all parties, and whilst 
firmly maintaining my own opinions, avoid acerbity by a proper re- 
spect for the opinions of others. Truth, justice, and the interests of 
the people of the District of Columbia, without regard to party or 
race, shall be the rule and object of my conduct and labors." 

It would be unbecoming in a biographical sketch to enter into any- 
thing like an argument in favor of Mr. Merrick, but when it is recol- 
lected how much and how often the people of this District will need 
an advocate, it may be well to properly consider the above, especially 
as the opposition acknowledge that Mr. Merrick is "a man of influ- 
ence, power, intelligence — a man of whom any party may be proud." 

In making a personal reference to Mr. Merrick, we think it a note- 
worthy fact that we are able to apply to him the identical language 
used by a felicitous writer in a personal description of the greatest 
of English advocates. Lord Thomas Erskine. " He is of medium 
height, with a slender but finely turned figure, animated and grace- 
ful in gesture, with a voice beautifully modulated, a countenance 
beaming with emotion, and an eye of piercing keenness and power." 
And we are not far from an appropriate comparison when we iiivm 
Mr. Merrick the Erskine of the American bar. 
421 



la BICnARP T MERRICK. 

IJr. Merrick is surrouiulccl by tlie aliurciueuts and fascinations of 
a beautiful and g;enial home, and a wide circle of firm and devoted 
friends. He is in possession of the confidence and respect of this en- 
tire community. In fact the gale of popular favor in his behalf not 
only includes personal and political friends, but sweeps along in its 
resistless current hundreds who, if not aflected by the magnetic force 
of one who puts his soul into every word and deed, would otherwise 
stand aloof from mingling in piiblicafi'airs. 

KiCHARD T. Merrick is Washington's favorite son. Lihertias 
et natale solum is his motto. 

We are indebted to the Washington Sunday Gazette, April 9th, 1871, for the 
foregoing sketch. 

422 



(-)> 







,,_y/^j^/ti^^{A^ct-i^ 



Z2 



K P. CniPiMAN-. 

'ENEPtAL N. P. CHIPilAX, who, ia April, 1871, was 
elected a delegate to Congress from the District of Colum- 

^C bia, 13 one of the rising politicians of the country, and a 
man of decided ability, who has distinguished himself as a 
soldier and as an orator. He was bom in Milford, Union county, 
Ohio, March 7, 1834, and is consequently thirty-seven years of age. 
His father, who was born in Yermont, and a member of the famous 
Chipman family of that State, was engaged in mercantile pursuits, 
and, during his boyhood, the General attended the primary schools 
in the city in which he was bom. 

When he was fifteen years of age his parents removed to Wash- 
ington, Iowa, where liis father engaged in business, and be entered 
college, having the advantage of all the facilities for education the 
State then aflForded. In 185S and 1859, he attended the law-school 
in Cincinnati, Ohio, and subsequently engaged in the practice of 
law with Mr. Lewis, under the name and firm of " Lewis & Chip- 
man," his then partner now being Justice of the United States Su- 
preme Court for Idaho Territory. He continued in the practice of 
law until the breaking out of tlie rebellion, when he was the first 
man to enroll himself as a volunteer in a company being organ- 
ized in the city for the first three-year regiment sent from that 
State. The regiment was mustei-cd into service at Keokuk, Iowa, 
with the then Hon. Samuel R. Curtis as colonel. While in the ren- 
dezvous at Keokuk, General Chipman, who had entered as a private, 
was promoted to first lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment. 

Before starting for the iront, the i-egiment took possession of, and 
held the Hannibal and St. Jos^ Eailroad, and were the means of 
423 



C II I r M A N 



saving tlmt road and protecting northern Missouri from rebel out- 
breaks. The Colonel, being a West Point graduate, was made a 
Brigadier-General among the tii-st promotions, and General Cliip- 
man, by a vote of the commissioned oflicei-s of the regiment, way 
elected as major, and coniinissioned as such by Governor Kiikwood. 
The regiment, soon after, was sent to south eastern Missouri, and 
was among the forces which gathered at Fort Donelson under Gen 
eral Grant, then in the dawning of his fame. Ho participated in 
the siege tuul battles of that fortress, which are now historic. When 
the tiual battle came, the Second Iowa were selected to lead the 
charge upon the outer works, which they carried and held. This 
w!is the prelude to General Grant's tamous dispatch: "I propose tc 
move immediately upon your works." 

This charge of the regiment was one of the finest during the en 
tire campaign, and drew from General Halleck, then in command 
of the Western armies, this compliment — " This regiment was the 
bravest of the brave" — which he telegraphed to the Governor of 
Iowa. During this charge General Chipman was severely wounded 
and left, upon tlie field for dead, and so reported in the dispatches 
and papers at the time. He remained on the field for three days, 
when he was sent to hospital in St. Louis, Mo. There he remained 
for several montlis, hovering between life and death, but finally re- 
covered, returned to his regiment, and participated in the siege of 
Corinth, dm-ing which time he received a notice of his promotion to 
the position of Colonel and Aid-de-camp in the regular army, on 
the staff of Majoi'-General Ilalleck, and ordered to report to General 
Samuel E. Curtis, who had been promote 1 for distinguished ser- 
vices at the battle of Pea Pidge, Ark., and wi\s tlien at HeleuM, 
Ark. General Chipman was immediately made Chicf-of-stivfl", ami 
remained in that position while General Curtis was in command of 
tlie Department of Arkansiis and the Department of Missouri, with 
headquarters at St. Louis. 

In the latter p.art of 1S63 General Chipman was ordered to 
Washington on special dntv, and while there was assigned to special 
424 



duty as the judge advocate of a military commission. When the 
Bpecial duty which brought him to Washington had been completed, 
he applied to be relieved from duty and permitted to return to his 
former chief, then in command of the department of Kansas. Con- 
sidering his services too valuable in the Capital to be dispensed with, 
Secretary Stanton was unwilling to allow him to depart, and he was 
assigned to duty in the War Department, where he made many 
friends of the officers, both of the regular and volunteer service, by 
his urbanity and courtesy. He remained in the War Department 
nntil after the close of the war in November, 1865, but, before 
retiring, he was rewarded by a commission as Brigadier-General 
Fmding that his services were concluded, the General tendered his 
resignation, which was accepted. 

During his stay in the War Department, General Chipman was 
called upon by Secretary Stanton and General Halleck, then in 
command of the army, to perform some hazardous services, which 
he did to their entire satisfaction. He enjoyed the confidence of the 
late Secretary until the date of his death. While on duty in the 
War Department, General Chipman married a daughter of Mr 
Eobert Holmes, one of the most respected and wealthy citizens of 
St. Louis, Mo., and made up his mihd to make Washington City his 
future home. He at once purchased a homestead on Capitol 'nill, 
and has since resided in that section of the city. After his retire- 
ment from the War Department, he resumed the practice of the law 
in the Capital in connection with Colonel Hosmer and General Gil- 
more, under the name of Chipman, Hosmer & Co., a firm so weU 
known to the community that a simple mention is suflicient 

The special duty of General CTiipman in his business was the 
preparation of cases before the Court of Claims and the Supreme 
Court, where his arguments were regarded as of the first order and 
received the commendation and praise of the Judges of both Courts 
Dunng his practice of law, the General was tendered by Commis- 
sioner RoUins, of the Internal Eevenue Department, the position as 
soheitor of that Department. This he declined, as he had done 



nu- 
4: 



nierous offers for political preferment in bis own State, where his 
ability and patriotism would have given him almost any position bo 
desired. He attended quietly to bis business pumiits in tbis city, 
steadily ignoring rings and cliques, steadfastly adbering to tbe prin- 
•iples of tbe Eepublican party, of wbicb be is, and has ever been, a 
;onsistent and devoted member. 

General Cbinman was made Secretary of tbe Executive Commit- 
tee of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Convention, wbicb assembled at 
Cbicago just prior to tbe nomination of General Grant, and ren- 
dered valuable aid during tbat campaign in organizing and render- 
ing effective tbe soldier vote. lie was tbe master spirit of tbe 
Soldiei-s' and Sailors' Convention wbicb met at Pbiladelpbia, and 
gathered togetlicr so many of our heroes. In tbis manner bis name 
is known to thousands of citizens tbrongbout tbe country, and bis 
election cannot fail to give satisfiiction to tbe element of which he is 
so prominent a member. He has also a lai-ge and numerous ac- 
quaintance with membei-s of Congress, and being in political sympa- 
thy with them, can materially aid tbo interests of tbe District. Tbe 
General is now largely interested in real estate in Washington, and 
is engaged in numerous charitable enterprises. 

In pei-sonal appearance. General Chipman is striking and prepos- 
sessing. He is a man of about five feet eleven inches in height, of 
lithe form and affable demeanor. He is a fluent speaker, quick in 
repartee, and agreeable in his style of oratory. He will, we are 
sure, malce as enviable a reputation in Congress as bo did on tbe 
battle-field, fighting for the Union. 
426 



I 



m 



MAJ-GFN. JAMES S. NEGLET. 



EY J. TRAINOR KING. 

"^^[fi EXERAL NEGLEY is the present and prospective repre- 
sentative of the Twenty-second Pennsylvania District in 
Congress. He was elected in 1868 by the Republican 
party, and is again before the people for a re-elcciiou, and his dis- 
trict being largely republican, his re-election is a foregone conclu- 
sion. 

He comes of the old Negley stock, the first settlers of Alleghany 
Connty, his grandfather or granduncle, we do not remember which, 
having located at what is now East Liberty, and within the city 
limits of Pittsburgh, when the latter was only a military post, (Fort 
Pitt.) 

The General was born in that ].icality on the 26th of December, 
1826, and has resided on the old homestead during all his life. 

In the Phrenological Journal for November, 1S65, we find a de- 
tailed account of his early life and military career, from which we 
epitomize the leading facts. 

His education, embracing a collegiate course, was interrupted when 
he was in his nineteenth year by his enlistment in the army for the 
war with Mexico. His parents and friends attempted to dissuade 
him from going, and the legal authorities were appealed to, on the 
ground of his minority, to nullify his enlistment; but with the de- 
cision and spirit which has always characterized him, young Negley 
determined to go, in spite of friends and family. Seeing this, his 
jiarents abandoned any further effort to detain him, and as a private 
427 



a MAJ-OKN JAMES S NEOLKY. 

of the First Ponusylvaniu Infiuitry ho iiiado the campaign from Vom 
Cruz to tho city of Mexico. While purticipatiug in the soige of 
Puobla, news reached his family that his health was much impaired, 
Tind his friends, throu';;!! their intluencr at Washington, procured his 
discharge direct Irom the War Department. Tliis reached young 
Negley immediately after the fall of Fuobla; but he indignantly re- 
fuseii to accept it, and remained on duty as a sei-geant, to which he 
had boon promotetl. until the close of tho wiu-. On his return to 
Pennsyh-iinia. Negley devoted himsi'lf actively to agriculture, and 
passionately to hoi ticultui-o. He is one of the most accomplished 
horticulturists in the country, and when in tl-.e field of war, his 
leisure hours were dovoteil to the study of Viuious fruits, flowers, and 
shrubs in which tho Southern fields and woods abounded. Many a 
march, long, tedious, exhausting, has been rendeivil delightful to his 
statf by his intoiTsting descriptive iilustrations of the hidden l^eauties 
and virtues cf fragrant flowers and repulsive weeds. He did not, 
meantime, lose his passion for arms. His militaiy ardor was not 
lost luuid his poaci^ful pursuits in his vineyards and g.u\lens, but 
during the thirteen j-ears of peace which followed the Mexicjin War, 
he took groat inteivst in the militia mattei-s of his State; and among 
his last acts as a Brig;\dier-General of Pennsylvania militia, was to 
earnestly urge on the Legislatui-e the thorough reorganization of the 
militia, in view of the civil wivr which he declared already threatene<l 
the country, and to offer, on Decembex 1st, 1S60, tho services of a 
brigade to the G-overuor. Governor Curtin did not think the time 
had arrived for the work of raising troops, but on the ISth of April, 
1S61, amid all the excitement consequent on the actual commence- 
ment of hostilities. Governor Curtin summoned (ienexsil Negley to 
his aid, and at once commissioned him }\s Brigadier-General, in order 
to secure his services in or^gs^niziug the immense force of volunteers 
who rendezvoused at H;vrrisburg at the first hi\rsh c;ill to arms of the 
guns of Sumter. 

The career of General Ne^lev from that time forw;\rd has Ix-'on one 
423 



MAJ.-GEN. JAMES S. NEOLET. 3 

of honor, promotion and deserved success. He was commissioned 
Brigadier-General, in the three month's service, and engaged un- 
der Patterson in the Northern Virginia campaign, commanding in 
the only engagement of any importance fought by that arm)'. On 
the expiration of the time of his three months' brigade, General Neg- 
ley re-enlisted a brigade of three years' men, and in September, 1861, 
was ordered with it to Kentucky. Here he participated in the march 
on Nashville, and entered that city in February, 1862. From thence 
he was ordered to Columbia, Tennessee, in command of the district, 
and with orders to protect the rear of Buell's army, marching on 
Shiloh, and the division of General Mitchell moving on Huntsville. 
This duty he performed with signal success, and at the same time 
made several raids of great importance. 

At the battle of Stone River, General Negley commanded a divis- 
ion of the^enter corps. On the first day he fought desperately and 
successfully for several hours, until by reason of the defeat of the 
right wing his flank became exposed, and he was compelled to retire 
upon the line of reserves. Here he fought for the remainder of the 
day and the succeeding one. On the afternoon of the third day of 
the battle, having beon previously transferred to the left, he made a 
countercharge upon the advancing column of the rebels under Breck- 
enridge, and completely broke and routed it, persuing the vanr^uished 
ex- Vice President into his entrenchments, and establishing himself in 
such a position on the right flank of the rebel line as ref[uired its early 
evacuation. For this service he was promptly promoted Major-Gen- 
eral. 

Thy Journal, in speaking phrenologically of him, says: 
"Intellectually, he has the power to grasp at a single glance of the 
mind the trathin relation to a subject, to comprehend the interior 
essence of things, and that first judgment is his best. If he has an 
impression that it is best to buy or not to buy, to sell or to hold on, 
to act now or in a particular manner, or to wait, that impression is 
wiser than any deliberate judgment he can make. Hence he is able 
429 



4 MA J. -GEN. JAMES S. NEC! LEY. 

to ilo a great deal in a very short time. His language is large, an>l 
had he been educated for speaking or writing, he would have used lan- 
guage with sinootliness, discrimination, taste and force. He ought to 
have been placed, if he has not been, in a position where talking is re- 
quired. 

"He has talent to understand and apply mechanism, to appreciate 
beauty and refinement, poetry and oratory. He values property, 
but is not craving or greedy to get it. He likes to make money and 
then enjoy it, and let those around him share it with him. He has 
real courage real executiveness, and warmth of temper, but is not 
malicious, vindictive, selfish or cruel in spirit. 

" He is stern and firm when his mind is made up and feelings 
settled; is not overstocked with self-esteem; confides in himself, bat 
is not haughty; is ambitious to be approved, and to please his friends 
and the community, but he feels under obligations to do right, whether 
friends are pleased or not. 

" He can keep his owncounsel, and is not inclined to tell that which 
would damage himself, his cause, or his friends. Socially, he is loving 
and warm-hearted, always gallant, interested in children and pets, 
in friends in general, and in woman in particular. He clings to liie, 
feels a desire to prolong his existence as much as may be, and would 
defend himself against enemies, rise above bad climates and exposure, 
and by the force of will resist diseases. 

" He has resj)ect for sacred subjects, sympathy for those in distress, 
and willingness to render assistance as he has 02:)portunity." 

Since General Negley's advent in Congress, he has made rapid 
strides in statesmanship. Eis advocacy of home manufactures, par- 
ticularly the building of our own steamships, has enlisted the press 
and public generally in his praise. 

From the Daily Morning Chronicle, Washington, D. C, July 
20lb, 1S70, we extract the following : 

" The letter of the Hon. William H. Seward to General James S. 
Negley, Representative in Congress from the 22d District of Pt.mn- 
^ 420 



MAJ.-GEN. JAMES S. NEGLEY. 5 

sylvania, printed in to-day's issue, merits the careful perusal of all 
Americans. It is an unqualified indorsement of the princip:e3 so 
earnestly advocated by General Negley during the last session of 
Congress. The letter was written before the war-cloud rose in 
Europe, and therefore does not discuss the immediate urgency of our 
commercial necessities. But General Negley had undoubtedly fore- 
seen the certainty, if not the time and place, of the present issue in 
Europe, when he delivered his masterly speech on commercial and 
shipping interest on the 11th day of May, and excl-imed: ' There 
are at present many political combinations, which may at any time 
precipitate a general war in Europe.'" 

These prophetic words he used while pleading for prompt legisla- 
tive action in favor of American shipping and ship-building. 

Again, he said, "the indications are becoming clearer every day 
that the commercial supremacy of northern Europe ought to termin- 
ate," and the conclusions to be derived from the present complications 
in Europe seem tojustify every word uttered by him on that occa- 
sion. 

" It is now evident that the North German flag is unsafe for com- 
mercial carriage. It is very doubtful how long England will main- 
tain her safeguard of neutrality, and there is no longer a mere theory 
about the question whether or not the time has amvedfor the American 
flag to assume its legitimate sphere on the ocean. 

" ' Now IS OUR TIME FOB action!' Said General Negley, and events 
have proved that he was right." 

The General's home at " Shady Side "is a perfect paradise, both 
outside and in. His handsome residence is completely embowered 
in flowers; but fair as those outside are, there is a fairer one inside; 
one that might, a little over a year ago, have been termed a maiden- 
bhish. We allude to his charming young wife, whose gracious and 
elegant deportment adds a charm that is highly appreciated by the 
General, -nd all who partake of their hospitable cheer 
4.31 



6 MAJ GEN. JAMES S. NEGLICY. 

In person the General is above medium height, and proportion- 
ately built, elegant in looks, genial ami courteous in manner, and ex- 
tremely kind to Ilia inferiors and those in his employ. He commands 
Ihe respect of all who know him, and is esteemed at home 
an excellent representative man of the wants and interests of his 
locality. 

We aro indebted to " Leisuek Houbs " for the foregoing sketcll. 

432 






O^i^-^^ -c^ 



^ /z-*^ c^ 



JOHN F. HENET. 



?|JOHN FRANCIS HENRY is one of the most remarkable 
Jv^ men of the age. It is but a few years since he began life with- 
^""^ out means; and, with no other capital than his brain, he 
has not only acquired a fortune, but has attained a position of emi- 
nence in his business in so short a space of time, that it seems forced 
upon us to say "Here is a study for young men who desire to succeed 
in the legitimate accumulation of wealth. Here is an example, a 
model in eveiy respect worthy your emulation." 

How has he accomplished success ? Not by speculation; nor reck- 
less venture ; nor undue advantage; but by the exercise of judg- 
ment, by indomitable perseverance, by an unswerving determination 
to carry out his purposes and intentions. With an intuitive per- 
ception, he matures his plans when he forms them, and accom- 
plishes them without material change, and against all opposition. 

In this respect he is superior to most men who deUberate too long, 
and who vacillate too easily ; and in this lies the secret of his suc- 
cess. His mind is made up at once on every subject of importance, 
and with far-reaching perceptive faculties, he sees the end as soon 
as he sees the beginning. He comprehends things in then- entirety 
rather than in detail, and grasps at unerring conclusions with the 
rapidity of intense mental concenl ration. 

He was bom in the town of Waterbury, Vt., on the 25th of Febru- 
ary, 1834, and is therefore but thirty-seven years of age; and even now 
he is the King of the " Household Medicine" trade, and has made 
his great warehouse in New York the fountain-head whence druff- 
4.33 



Kistsinall parts of the world obtain their supplies of American 
propr.etary medicines. In a recent article in one of our periodicals, 
a writer states that the entire proprietary medicine business of the 
world is some ten millions annually, of which Mr. Henry alone does 
about three millions, or nearly one-third. 

It is a matter of absorbing interest to ioUow his successful career 
from its commencement up to the present time, and to note that in 
no single instance is any act oi" his life characterized by avaricious 
over-reaching or miserly scheming. He has never impoverished 
others to enrich himself. On the contrary, he is distinguished for 
his charities ; he is liberal to his employees, to whom he pays larger 
salaries than many other princely merchants of our time; dealing lib- 
erally with all his clerks, in a democratic spirit, rather than 
paying large salaries to one or two, and keeping the rest at the lowest 
point possible, as is so often done, by many who copy the custom 
of European merchants in this respect; and his contributions to re- 
ligious societies are charabteristic of his liberaUty in other respects, 
and are in harmony with his o[)en-hearted benevolence, which, in 
general, is but little known to the outer world. 

He sprang from an old and illustrious family. The Henrys of Ver- 
mont have figured prominently in the political world for many years; 
and on his mother's side, the Gale tiimily are well and favorably 
known, one of whom, the late Judge Gale, of Galesville, Wisconsin, 
attaimd an enviable position on the Bonch in that State, having 
been for many years judge of the Supreme Court and cliairman of 
the Judiciary Committee of the Senate. Both his father and grand- 
father were members of the Vermont Legislature, and from them he 
inherited all the pride and independence of spirit that belong to 
natures not born to go contentedly through life without an effort to 
rise above mediocrity and to contend bravely against adveisity. 
From his early boyhood he earned his own livelihood, and when, in the 
Spring of 1851, his father met with reverses that threatened to impov- 
erish their family, he told his father that he must either go to 
434 



JOHN F. HENRY. 3 

California, or travel through the country in the medicine business, 
as he (his father) had done. To both these schemes there were ob- 
jections. He was but a boy; and his father had Httle confidence in his 
ability to succeed in either case, but as he had determined to do 
something to recruit their fallen fortunes, it was finally settled that 
he should travel, and off he started, bag in hand, on foot. 

He was to meet his father at Burlington, and thence to cross 
Lake Champlain, and go on alone to Fort Ticonderoga, a place which 
was, years ago, celebrated by the memorable achievement of Ethan 
Allen, who demanded the surrender of the fort " In the name of the 
Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress. It is possible young 
Henry's father thought that he would by that time become so tired 
and disheartened with the task he had undertaken that he would be 
ready to emulate the British general on that occasion, and quietly 
surrender. In fact he thought it better for him to return to the com- 
forts of home, and, no doubt, hoped that the hard task he had given 
him would induce him to abandon so serious an undertaking for a 
boy of his years. But John was not so easily discouraged. The 
work was new to him. He had accounts to collect for various parties, 
one of whom is now the Hon. Sinclair Tousey, President of the Am. 
News Co., and chairman of the Republican General Committe of the 
City of New York, and others who have since attained to more or 
less celebrity. His success was even greater than he had anticipated. 
It is true it was tiresome traveling on foot with his heavy carpet- 
bag, but he was indefatigable in his exertions, and no doubt collect- 
ed accounts and made sales where many a less detormiiied' young man 
would have given up the enterprise in despair. 

In fact his father felt so certain that he would return home to the 
comforts and allurements which usually pro^-e such strong attractions 
to youth, that he even did not go to Port Kent, the town appoint- 
ed as the place of meeting, and John was obliged to go some dis- 
tance further to meet him. 

" Hallo ! John !" was his father's greeting, with some astonish - 
435 



i J 11 N F . H K N H V . 

mt-nt at seeing the young man there, wheu he supposed he was on 
his way home. " Well ! ready to go home now, I suppose ?" 

"No, sir; lam ready tu go nn. I am not going to give it up 
yet." 

" H'm ! Well, what luck have you had ?" 

" Pretty good," and he showed the results of his labor, with 
which his ftither was so much pleased that he finally consented to 
allow him to "try it again." 

For two days they traveled together ; and it was quite a relief 
to the 'foot-tired boy to make his trips from town to town in a 
wagon, even for this short time. In this way they went as far as 
Brasher, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., when his father returned, and 
John proceeded on foot through St. Lawrence, Jefiferson, Lewis, 
Oneida, Herkimer, Montgomery, Schenectady, Fulton and Saratoga 
Counties, and at Saratoga Springs he again met his father, with the 
horse and wagon. 

It was a joyful meeting. The father was more than pleased with 
the success and determination of his son. He justly thought that 
there was not one boy in a million who would not have returned 
home discouraged under the circiunstances. In his eyes he was no 
longer a boy — he was a man, at least, in intelligence and enterprise, 
if not in stature. He had accomplished what many men woidd have 
failed to do, and enthusiastic admiration was not to be wondered at. 

"You have done first-rate, John. You have helped me more 
than I could have lielj^ed myself I am getting out of debt, thank 
God, and I begin to hope again. You have more than earned a 
horse and wagon ibr yourself, and you shall have this one hereafter, 
and travel no more on foot." 

So, after arranging their plans, his father returned home by rail, 
and John continued on, via Troy, Albany, etc., to New York, and 
for the first time entered the great city, about which he had heard 
and read so much, but knew so little. His stay there was short. 
With a boyish dread of pit-falls and snares, he avoided all places of 



JOHN F. HliNKY. 5 

amusement, and confined liis visits to the stores of men with whom 
he had business. 

Among other places, he went to the store of Mr. Oiickener, and 
bought a supply of medicine, for which he paid in cash the full 
price demanded. One of tl,e clerks, thinking it a good oppor- 
tunity to have some sport at the expense of a green country boy 
said: 

" They have very fine horses in Vermont, where you came from 
I believe." ' 

" Yes sir, I believe they have," John modestly replied. 
" Very large fine horses." 
" Yes, sir." 

"Well, now," continued the very dry joker, with a leer at his 
companions, preparatory to the big ^^ sell" he was over-confident of 
getting off, " do you think you could get me a fine, nice, large, fast 
horse thera for about fifty dollars .?" 

"I think," said John, who began to take in the situation 
"that you can get just the kind of horse you want right here in 
New TorJc; and just as good a horse as-you are able to pay for." 
This turned the laugh on the would-be wit, and John retired 
amidst the plaudits of the clerks. Back he went to his team, wast- 
ing no time in idleness in the metropolis, and continued his route 
to Albany, Schenectady, Utica, &c. He was gone, on this trip, in 
all, from April to November, and earned money enough in that time 
to pay all his father's debts, and place the family above want. This 
had been his aim from the fii-st, and he had yielded to no temptation 
to loiter by the way, till his design was fully accomplished. 

He made a second and third trip the following year, and in this 
hardy school his business habits and principles were formed. His 
ambition was to succeed in whatever he undertook, and up to this 
time, has never met with a single failure. 

In the Spring of 1854 he went out on the road again, having spent 
a considerable part of the previous year or two in going to^school 
437 



6 JOHN F. UliNKY. 

and in teaching, in which he was eminently successful, his energy 
as a teacher being as fully displayed as when in business. On this 
trip, having accumulated means wherewith to operate, he adopted a 
new method in regard to accounts he was collecting, and tliat was 
to buy them out altogether from the original holder, at as low a 
figure as he could get them, and take his own risk in collecting. 
In some instances he bought old accounts at 5 and 10 per cent, of 
their nominal value, and by perseverance in collecting, he turned 
one dollar into ten, and ten into a hundred. His unparalleled suc- 
cess in this transaction may be considered as the foundation of his 
fortune, for ever afterwards he was on the qui vive for some appar- 
ently valueless bundle of papers, out of wi.ich he felt assui-ed he 
could make thousands by his own peculiar method of perse- 
verance in -working them up. 

In the Fall of 1854 he again engaged in teaching school in the 
northern part of New York State, in St. LawienceCo.; and it was 
while there that he met the daughter of Prof. BaiTett, the gramma- 
rian; and this estimable young lady be married about a year after- 
wards, having in the interim returned to his native town and pur- 
chased the drug store there, preparatory to settling down, a fully 
fledged business man. His father retained the outside traveling 
business, which had largely increased through liis son's indefatiga- 
ble efftn-ts, but the store was John's, paid for with money of his own 
earning, and the sign over his store was then, as it is to-day, "John 
F. Henry," in his own name alone. 

He also provided money for the education of his sisters, and for 
the assistance of his brothei-s, the oldest of whom, William, went to 
California, but subsequently returned, and was allowed a partner- 
ship in the general Inisiness, which was then consolidated under the 
name of James M. Henry & Sons, and comprised the entire business 
on the road, as well as in the store. 

In all this John was the moving spirit, and kept urging the busi- 
ness on to broader fields and gieater prosperity. He now began to 
438 



JOHN F. Hi:XRY. • 7 

be recognized as a young man of sterling worth and influence, and 
was chosen as one of the trustees, or committee, of his church, and 
was appointed to fill various offices in his town, the duties of all of 
which he discharged with punctillious fidelity. 

lu the Fall of 1859 he started a branch store in Montreal, 
Canada, againfst the advice of friends, and with the reluctant consent 
of his father. Duty was then 30 per cent, on medicines, and 
Canadians flattered themselves that this would effectually keep out 
American enterprise, but they were mistaken, for one fine morning 
John opened his shop right under their noses, and solved the 
mystery of evading imports by manufacturing on the spot, and in 
a few years the business there became the largest of the kind in 
Canada, and retains its prestige even to this day, althouo-h Mr. 
Henry sold out his entire interest therein some three ye^rs ago. 

On the breaking out of the late war with the South, the 
Henry family proved their extreme loyalty both in men and means. 
Three brothers joined the army, and John contributed liberally of 
his pecuniary substance. One of the brothers, Edwin, as fine a 
young man as any among that vast army of martyrs to principle, 
was killed in the last victorious battle of Petersburg; and a monu- 
ment now perpetuates his name and noble deeds in his native town 
of Waterbury. The elder brother, Wilham W., was so general a fa- 
vorite that he rose rapidly through all the gradations from Lieutenant 
to Brigadier General; and on his return home he was almost unaui- 
muusly elected to the Senate of the State of Vermont, to which place 
he was twice again re-elected, each time with an increasing majority; 
and he has since held important places in civil and military offices in 
his State, among which are the Grand Commandery of the Grand 
Army of the Eepubhc of the State of Vermont, and the presidency 
of the Board of Aldermen of the City of Burhngton, Vt. 

The declining health of their father necessitated his retirement 
frcm business, and the firm was changed in 1862 to John F. 
Henry & Co. The subsequent three or four years were fruitful in 
439 



many changes. In 1863, tbeir father, James M. Hcmy, died, la- 
mented by a large circle of friends. Mr. Joiin F. Henry, subse- 
quently bought out all his partners, and for a while held the entire 
business in Vermont and Canada in his own name; and during the 
war the rapid advance in the prices of proprietary medicines almost 
doubled the value of the stock in trade, and in this way, by good 
management, he made over a hundred thousand dollars. 

In the Fall of 1866 he weut to New York, and took a partnership 
in the business with Uemas Barnes & Co., and he then had heavy 
interests in four large houses: one in New York, one in Waterbury, 
one in Montreal, and one in New Orleans. The latter was sooii 
closed, and wishing to give his entire attention to the business in N. 
Y., he subsequently sold out his interests in the Montreal and Wa- 
terbury houses. 

In the Fall of 1868 Mr. Henry bought out the entu-e business of 
Demas Barnes & Co., and removed to No. 8. College Place, where 
he now does the largest medicine business of any house in the world ! 

It is not in the province of this brief article to give any detailed 
description of his business, but suffice it to say that he carries a 
stock of over a quarter of a million of dollars, and sells nearly three 
millions a year, and the amount of his sales is constantly on the 
increase. He employs quite a little army of book-keepers, salesmen, 
clerks, packers, &c., all of whom are well paid, and none overworked. 

He does not carry business matters to his home, and allows no 
cares or perplexities incident to mercantile affairs to intrude upon 
the sacred precincts of his hearth-stone. He still retains the exu- 
herant spirit of his boyhood, and is wont to greet his family with 
cheerful smiles, and in their joyous circle to indulge in anecdote anil 
lepartee for their anmsement. He is extremely conscientious, and 
strongly averse to wasting money in luxurious indulgences and 
personal gratiiication, while so many needy ones daily cross his path, 
to whom the mouey, which might be so spent, is a far richer bless- 
ing, when bestowed, as he gives it, without ostentation or reluctance. 
440 



JOHN F. HENRY. 9 

He is a regiilar attendant at the South Congi-egational Church, of 
which the celehrated Eeverend Dr. H. M. Storrs is pastor, and though 
not a member, is one of the trustees, and, we think, also one of the 
pew committee of that church. 

He is very active and energetic. Whim in Waterbm-y he carried 
on, in addition to his large wholesale establishment, a retail drug 
store, a book store, a livery stable, and also attended to his duties 
as post master. And now he not only has the entire management of 
his immense business in New York, to which he gives personal atten- 
tion, but is the largest stockholder — in fact, nearly entire owner of 
the Saratoga Spring Company, of which he is president — is also 
president of two large manufactuiing companies, and a prominent 
and influential director in several Insurance Companies, and in the 
Security Bank of New York; and a member of the Chamber of 
Commerce of N. Y., and of the Historical Society of Brooklyn. 

He infuses a spirit of enthusiasm into whatever he undertakes, 
and halts at nothing short of ultimate and complete success. How- 
ever arduous his duties, he slights nothing, nor leaves any task un- 
attended to. 

Mr. Henry is now one of the leaders in the Republican party of 
Brooklyn, where he resides, and his friends already look upon him 
as a candidate for Congressional or other high political honors. His 
influence amongst the members of his party is very great, and his 
personal acquaintance with the President, and his friendly relations 
with the Vice-President and other eminent men, give him a politi- 
cal status of no ordinary grade. 

In his habits he is extremely temperate, using neither tobacco 
nor spirits of any kind; and almost invariably spends his evenings 
at home, surrounded by his family, enjoying their society, and spend- 
ing the time in reading or social conversation, rather than in seeking 
for amusement or recreation elsewhere. 

In appearance, he is a fine-looking man, of light comjjlexion and 
spare build; is extremely courteous and affable; is social to an ex- 



tent that is sometimes almost detrimental to his interests, and often al- 
lows his friends to trespass too much upon his time. His desk is in the 
common office, and no cerberus of a janitor ever bars the entrance or 
intrusion of any visitor to his presence. His customers, let them 
come I'rom whatever part of the world they will, are always sure of 
a hearty greeting and a welcome personal reception at his hands. 

In his own modest estimation, he has but just laid the broad and 
solid foundation on which he is eventually destined in the future, 
if life and health are spared, to raise the great superstructure of 
prosperity and affluence; and in the estimation of his most inti- 
mate friends, he fully deserves the richest rewards that fortune can 
bestow upon energy, discrimination, keen perception, and a dis- 
position at once social, kind and charitable. 
442 




'/h) Cg .<^c^ 



COLON KL WILLIAM NICIIOLAIS OOLER. 

/fEll^S^HE story of every life, were it written, would be iuterest- 
r^ ing- Character is a philosopliieal study, as pleasing as it is 
^1^ instructing. But few tilings transcend the gratification we 
deiive from such study. The ferreting out of the surround- 
ings and events of a life, and ascertaining to what extent each entered 
as a factor into the sum of its character, and the problem of its des- 
tiny, — especially is this true of the study of the earlier part of any 
life. It is supposed that the early home and .its surroundings — the 
house, the barn, the yard, the fields, the sweep stretching its long 
arm over the well-curb, the stump down by the gate, the little grass 
tufts growing in the fence corners, the graceful lawn of the red 
blossomed clover fields, the father and mother, the brothers and sis- 
ters, each and all contribute something to the character. Also, the 
old scliool-house and its play-grounds, the teachers, like Goldsmith's 
garulousold hero, or some bright-eyed, intelligent, fair young maiden 
from "the land of steady habits," tlie school-fellows, tlie wild, 
rollicking, daring boys, as rougli as bear-cubs, the more timid 
but not less lively girls, the companions and society of young man- 
hood, the adverse circumstances, the antagonisms and struggles, the 
hardships, the discipline of early poverty, the trials and disappoint- 
ments which lay along the path of life, pressed by the eager feet of 
youth, and through which the way must be carved to fortune if 
carved at all — all these doubtless score their impress deeply, repress, 
develojje, mould, fashion and shape the character, and give direction 
to the life. 

Climate and country, atmosphere and scenery have, without douljt, 
much also to do in forming and giving bent to both mind and heart. 
443 



2 COL. W I 1. 1. I A M N. OOI. ICR. 

Tlie iuliabitants of mountain districts partake of the ruggedness and 
boldness of their native hills. So too, the inhabitants of the great 
West, in their characteristics, partake of the largeness, breadth and 
richness of the country. These magnificent distances, stretching 
across prairie and woodland, this ainpleaess of room, where there is 
no necessity for elbowing each other out of the way : there corn- 
fields of ten thousand acres, and prairie lawns of many leagues in 
area ; rivers which thread a continent in their course, and lakes 
wliich are oceans in extent ; — all these impress their largeness upon 
the men and women of the West. The Mississippi Valley, not only 
grows large fields of Indian corn, and largo droves of cattle — herds 
from whence comes the beefsteak which gives Talmadge his fire, and 
New York dignitaries their alderman ic proportions — which, perhaps, 
too, by some mysterious chemical ])rocess, has something to do with 
Sumner's polished roundness, Emerson's philosophic dreamings, 
Longfellow's finished poesy, the clarion war notes of the peaceful 
quaker poet, and the "jaggered sharpness" of Gilbert Havens' 
"porcupine quill" — but it grows great men also ; statesmen, war- 
rioi-s, orators, poets, preachers, business men. From this field has 
come Clay, Lincoln, Douglas, Chase, Trumbull, Benton, Colfax, 
Grant, Simpson, Thompson, and hosts of others, eminent in every 
department of human elforts ; — stars of the greatest magnitude, gleam- 
ing in the constellation of American genius aiid greatness. 

Here, the firet impressions made on the child are those of vastness, 
and largeness— ideas which inter-penetrate his whole mental and 
moral nature, grows np with him, form and fashion him after their 
own model. The Western man despises narrowness and littleness. 
He has no sympathy with a penny trade, and petty details. He 
never could have patience to manufacture wooden nutmegs, when 
at the same time he could construct a Railroad, build a city, or 
make money enough in a single day to honestly pay for a ship-load 
of the genuine article. 

Col. William Nicholas Coler, (spelled " Roller " until a few gen- 
erations back,) is a Western man, and partaken largelv of Western 
444 



COL. WILLIAM N. COI. ER. 



Characteristics. A representative of its large brain, big heart, and 
broad views-a despiser of littleness, careless of details, but strong 
massive, and broad in generalities-a genuine American, and o,^ 
ot nature's noblemen. 

He was born near Mount Vernon, Knox county, Ohio, March 
12th, A. D. 1827. His parents were very poor. Let the mind pic- 
ture a lonely cabin, in the beoch-forests, by the side of a road seldon. 
frequented by strangers. Around it is a "clearing" of a few acres, 
redeemed by hardest toil from the woods. It is dotted with stumps 
interspersed with " girded " trees which stretch their dea,l branches 
aloft like the giant arms of some gaunt spectre. The door-yard is 
destitute of grass and shrubbery. The cabin itself is one room 
sixteen or eighteen feet square, built of logs and covered with " clap- 
boards. ' The spaces between the logs are chinked with pieces of 
wood and daubed with yellow clay. The chimney is built of sticks 
and clay, and is entirely outside of the house. The " fire-place " is 
large, and is furnace, parlor and cooking-stove combined. The floor 
IS of -punchin." There are a few side-beds in the corners, a rude 
hand-loom in the back part of the room, a few plain chairs or stools 
a rough table, and some iron pots, dutch ovens, and tin pans for 
cooking pui-poses. Look upon such a scene, and you have a picture 
ot the genuine Western cabin of forty years ago. In just such a 



- -J ./—^cf^v^. ill jubL Bucn a 
home did Lincoln hve in his boyhood days. In just such a place as 
this CoL Ooler first saw the light, and spent the years of his child 
hood. His father's cabin, however, was hardly equal to the average 



His parents were indeed poor, but they were descended from an 
.llustnous and wealthy ancestry. His father, Isaac Coler ,vas of 
German and French extraction. His grea tgrandmother was a 
Montmorency. His great grandfather, a man of wealth, and related 
by blood to some of the best families of the German and French 
border. He settled in Philadelphia-was a large ship owner, but 
lost his entire wealth by cruisers during our Revolutionary struo-de 
and was left in poverty. He emigrated to Virginia with his family' 
where the grandfather of the Colonel grew up, where his own fathe^ 
445 



was bom, and from whence be emigrated to Ohio. The mother of 
Col. Ooler was Amelia Nicholas, the daughter of Theresa De Moss. 
His maternal ancestry can be traced back through an illustrious line 
to Gerard, fii-st Duke of Lorraine, who received his patent of no- 
bility from Henry III., in the middle of the ninth century. From 
Gerard has come the present reigning house of Austria, and the 
house of Orleans, together with many houses and distinguished fam- 
ilies of lesser note. 

It is a great mistake to suppose that all the early settlers in the 
West were of the lower classes of society. Many of them were de- 
scendants of a noble ancestry. Many of them were men and wo- 
men of mental and social culture — of energy and force of character, 
but broken down in fortune and crushed in spirit. Many a lady 
who would have graced a palace has reigned, and still reigns, in a 
cottage or in a cabin. 

At eight, young Color lost his mother by death. Of her he says : 
" I was too young to know my loss then, but I have thought of it 
since. Prom my recollections of her she must have been a very su- 
perior woman— a woman in mind and heart far above her station in 
life. The lessons she taught me were such, I know now, as no ordin- 
ary woman would or could teach her son. They made an indelible 
impression upon me, and to one particular conversation she had with 
me, I owe the impulse which has been the strongest influence which 
has shaped my character and controlled my life." What such a na- 
ture as her's must have suffered in its privations can never be told. 
After his mother's death he remained at home, worldng on the farm 
with his fiither, and working by the month for neighboring farmers, 
earning something to help support the family, until he was eighteen 
years of age. His advantages of acquiring an education, in the 
meantime, were limited. A few odd days in the winter months 
spared from the drudgery of labor and spent in the district school, 
were all the advantages he had until his sixteenth year. His father's 
house was poorly supplied with books. But his thirst for knowl- 
edge could not be suppressed ; he borrowed books and read them at 
446 



COL. WILLIAM N. C () L E B . 



night by fire-light. When in school his active mind mastered his 
lessons almost intuitionallj. His capacity was such that every class- 
mate was left far behind in the race. So that, notwithstanding his 
disadvantages, he became a respectable English scholar, besides hav- 
ing acquired a great deal of general and useful knowledge. By ex- 
tra labor, and teaching school a terra or two, he was enabled to spend 
a short time in the academy at Mount Vernon, where he studied 
the higher mathematics, the natural sciences, and gained a fair, 
though not critical knowledge of Latin. 

In A. D 1845, he enlisted as a soldier in the Second regiment 
Ohio volunteers, commanded by Ool. G. W. Morgan, late General, 
and now member of Congress, and served one year therein in the' 
Mexican war as a private and non-commissioned officer, following 
the fortunes of that regiment. An incident of this early soldier- 
life, as it illustrates a quality of the coolest daring, as well as the es- 
timation which his superior officei-shad of his prudence and courage, 
is worthy of notice. It was necessary, if possible, to get dispatches 
from Ceralvoto Camargo, through the Hues of the Mexican army, 
which lay between the two places. Young Coler, and a comrade by 
the name of Berry were solicited to undertake tliis important and 
most dangerous work, as they were reckoned two of the coolest and 
bravest men in the regiment. They accepted the perilous under- 
taking. The night was dark and gloomy, the country comparatively 
unknown to them. Covered as it was with dense chapaiTal, the loca- 
tion of the enemy could not easily be ascertained. Their camps must 
be avoided, and their pickets evaded ; the chances were all against 
them. But on they pressed their way, winding circuitouslv around 
the camp-fires, creeping through the dense chaparral and around the 
sentries— on, on they went, the enemies' camp-fires gleaming, now 
upon the right, now upon the left, now Just before them, yonder be- 
hind them, the least false step might betray them, the crackling of a 
twig, the rustling of a leaf, when the sentries' bullet would perhaps 
cut short their undertaking, and their lives together. But without 
faltering, o.nvard they pushed unfil they had passed the outermost 



6 L . W I I. L I A Hr X . C O L K K . 

Mexican post picket, reacliing Cainargo in safety. For this dariug 
feat be was oflered a commissiou in the Regular Army. Had he ac- 
cepted it, there is no doubt but that he would have risen to position 
and honor in that calling. 

Upon the expu-ation of his term of service he returned home and 
entered into business as a tobacco planter on a small scale. With 
his own hands he cleared a piece of ground, laboring almost night 
and day upon it— planted, cultivated and harvested a fine crop, for 
which he received large returns. The next year he planted and raised 
another crop but lost it all by fire. It being all he had he was even 
with the world again. While splitting rails one day a wedge bounded 
from its place, giving him a severe and painful blow. Throwing 
down the maul he had in his hands, he said, "I am done with 
this kind of work forever." And sure enough he never from that 
moment tried it again. Immediately entering the law-office of Col. 
Morgan, he began the study of the law, but being short of funds, 
though not of resources, he, in company with a young friend, 
procured a galvanic battery and started on a tour of travel 
through the Southern and more Western States, lecturing up- 
on the wonders of galvanism and electricity. After making the 
tour of pretty nmch all the Southern States, he brought up at last 
in Whiteside county, Illinois, and engaged in teaching school. 
From Whiteside he w^ent to McLean county, auJ pursued for a 
while the same caUiug. Entering a law-office in Bloomiugtou, he 
completed his legal studies, and was admitted to the Bar in a. d. 
1851. He had designed coming to Illinois upon leaving Ohio, and 
had brought with him letters of introduction to Stephen A. Doug- 
las, Abraham Lincoln, Judge Stewart, and Judge David Davis. 
Upon the advice of Abraham Lincoln and Judge Davis, he settled 
in Urbana, Champaign county, Illinois, and began the practice of 
law. But a mind and an energy like his could not be satisfied with 
the mere routine of a lawyer's office. Soon he opened a real estate 
office also, and at the same time established, edited, and published 
the Urbana Union, the Ki-st newspaper published in Champaign 
418 



OOL. WILLIAM N. COLEE. 7 

county. His integrity, energy, judgment and superior business 
qualities soon drew the attention of capitalists. Business increased 
rapidly upon his hands. Besides the income from his profession he 
soon liad almost unlimited credit, and therefore the use of whatever 
capital he might desire. While locating lands for others he bought 
largely for himself. The county was developing at an almost fab- 
ulous rate ; these lands rose rapidly in value. Soon he added toliis 
other business that of banking, and in a short time became known 
as one of the wealthy men in that part of the State. This success 
however, was not reached without effort. His superior ability and 
transparent honesty could not fail to inspire the confidence of busi- 
ness men it is true, but then he was isolated, where he was, from 
most of the capital of the country. It was necessary for him to be- 
come known in the east as well as in the west. Almost the first 
thing he (lid, therefore, upon settling in Urbana was to go east and 
make the acquaintance of eastern capitalists. He and Douc^las had 
become warm personal friends. Douglas was in the Senate at that 
time, and the rising man of the nation. He had other friends there 
also. Their friendship admitted him to the friendship of other dis- 
tinguished men and capitalists. He had only to become known to 
be appreciated. The way to fortune was open at once. 

In A. D. 1860, he was a candidate for the Illinois State Senate his 
opponent being Eichard J. Oglesby, late Governor of Illinois; and 
notwithstanding the large majority of the opposing party in the Sen- 
atonal district, he ran several hundred votes ahead of his party, and 
was only defeated by a small majority. 

When the late Eehellion began he was a member of the Demo- 
cratic Central Committee for the State. He saw the danger which 
threatened the country, and witnessed with pain the vacillation of 
his party. He immediately wrote to Douglas, frankly tcllino. 
him his fears, and that, in his opinion, bad men meant mischief 
urging him to come to the West, which he did, and throw the power 
of his influence into the scale of the Government and sa^-e the par- 
ty and the country. 

449 



8 COL. WILLIAM X. COL KR. 

What the result iiiiglit Imve been had Douglas come out against the 
war, it is impossible to tell. Certain it is, that the whole Democratic 
party of the North-west would have gone with him. To Col. Coler 
as much, if not more than to any other man, we owe the result of 
llie course pursued by Douglas — a result that would have been felt 
/enfold more than it was, had the great statesman lived to steady the 
helm of liis party. 

He now threw all his energies, and the weight of his influence, 
into the scales of his country. He raised a regiment by his own ex- 
ertions, and offered its services along with liis own, to the Govem- 
ment — bearing from his own private purse the entire cost of recruit- 
ing and subsisting tbe regiment until it' was mustered into the serv- 
ice — spending in this way $8,500, which he has never asked the 
Government to refund to him. When tlie regiment was raised, the 
call made by the Government was already full, and the State 
authorities could not accept it. Leaving the men in camp, he went 
to Washington. Immediately upon his arrival he called at the 
White House, but such was the pressure there that many, for days, 
had been waiting to get an audience. He sent in his card, and 
shortly it was returned with the following written on the back of it : 
" Call at nine o'clock to-night. Lincoln." Nine o'clock was after 
business hours. When the hour arrived he went and was admitted. 
After the first greeting had passed, Lincoln said, " I wanted to have 
a quiet talk about old times." Sometime was spent.in conversation, 
the President calling up old incidents, and inquiring about old friends. 
Among other things, laughing over a little scrap of their ovm social 
history ; how that once, when they, in company with some other 
members of the bar were traveling from one county seat to another 
to attend court, and their team mired in one of the many prairie 
sloughs ; whereupon Coler, full of mischief, had taken Lincoln on his 
shouldei-s, " Abe's" long arms grasping him around the neck, and 
his long legs dangling at Coler's sides, while he i)lunged through the 
mud and water, bearing upon his shoulders the future President, 
and emancipator of four millions of human being:;. 
450 



OOL. WILLIAM N. OOLE] 



" What has become of our old friend for wliom we conducted the 
sheep case?" inquired Lincohi. Tliis client was defendant iu the 
suit, an honest, good natured old gentleman, but veiy ignorant, 
and weighing over three hundred pounds. Lincohi and Coler were 
lis attorneys. When the jury came iu the Judge gave their decis- 
-on, "judgment for the defendant." " What is the decision ?" said 
the old man, whispering to Lincoln. "Judgment for the defendant," 
he answered. "What does that mean?" asked the old man. "It 
means that the case has gone in your favor," Lincoln reijlied. Where- 
upon the old gentleman gave a chuckle which convulsed his whole 
frame, at the same time giving Lincoln such a punch with his mas- 
sive fist in the ribs that it almost bent him double. " What has be- 
come of our old friends?" he inquired, shaking with laughter. Thus 
passed the evening. A recommendation was given to Stanton to 
accept the regiment. But Stanton could do nothing toward receiv- 
ing it at that time. " Go home," said Lincohi, " and do not disband 
until you hear from me." He did. In the meantime the battle of Bull 
Eun came oif, and on the following day, July 22d, 1861, he received 
the following telegram : "Your regiment is accepted, report to military 
head-quarters, St. Louis, Missouri, without delay. A, Lincoln." On 
the same day a similar order came from Stanton, and on the next day 
the regiment started, and in due time was mustered into the service. 
It traversed a great part of the State of Missouri, stopping for a 
short time at Jefferson City, Otterville, Springfield, Ealeigh and 
other places. In the battle of Pea Eidge, it acted an important 
part through the first two days of the battle, and on the morning of 
the third day led the right of Gen. Sigel's charge ^vhich decided^he 
engagement in our favor. 

During the second day's fighting, the right wing of our army 
had been driven back over a mile, while our left wing had driven the 
enemy. A place called the " Elk Horn Tavern," in possession of 
the enemy, seemed to be the pivot around Avhich the two armies 
swung. Van Dorn had so arranged his lines that the space between 
lliem was an equilateral triangle. 

451 



10 C O L . W I L L I A M N . C <) L E E . 

The Elk Horn Tavern was the point where the two lines con- 
verged. Here were concentrated the enemy's strongest batteries, 
sii]>ported by the flower of the rebel army. At a late hour Friday 
night a council of war was lield, and it was agreed that Sigel 
slionld lead the attack upon this point the next morning. He 
massed his batteries in such a way, that their whole fire was con- 
centrated upon this point of the enemy's strength. An officer in 
the regular army, as quoted by John S. C. Abbot in Hai-per's 
Monthly for October, ISCG, in describing this part of the battle, 
says : " For two hours and ten minutes did Sigel's iron hail fall 
tliick as autumn leaves, furious as the avalanche, deadly as the 
Simoon. One by one the rebel pieces ceased to play ; onward crept 
our infantry ; onward crept Sigel and his terrible guns ; shorter 
and shorter grew the range. No charge of theirs could face that 
iron hail, or dare to venture on that compact line of bayonets. 
Again Sigel advanced his line, making another partial change of 
front, then came the order to charge the enemy in the woods, and 
those brave boys who had lain for hours with the shot of the enemy 
raining like hail upon them, and the guns of Sigel playing over 
them, rose up and dressed their ranks as if it had been an evening 
parade, and as the 'forward' was given, the Twenty-fifth Illinois 
moved in compact line, supported on the left by the Twelfth Mis- 
souri, and on the right by the Twenty-second Indiana, acting as 
skirmishers. As they passed into the dense brush they were met 
by a terrible volley ; this was answered by one as terrible, and tar 
more deadly. Volley followed volley, and yet on and on went that 
compact line of determined men. Steadily tlicj pushed the rebel 
forces until they gained more open ground ; here the confederate 
forces broke in confusion and fled. The day was ours." 

Colonel Coler commanded the Twenty-fifth Dliuois, the regiment 
which led the charge which gave us the battle of Pea Eidge. 
This was the regiment he had raised and fed until they were mus- 
tered into the service. A single incident, showing how that his 
coolness and forethought, as well as the bravery of the regiment 
452 



ooL. willia: 



and Sigel's genius, eoutributed to, nay, eecured the victory is 
wortl.y of mention. When the order was given to charo-e he'in- 
qun-ed, "Who supports me on the right?" It was not known 
After moving forward some considerable distance, and observing no 
support, usmg the discretionary power of a commanding officer he 
halted h,s men, and caused them to lie flat upon the ground until 
tlie 22d Ind. moved up to las support, while shot and shell literally 
hlled the air over their heads. Some misapprehension or delay in the 
order had prevented them from coming up, and they were not 
yet there. Had he moved directly on without this precaution 
no eai-thly power could have saved his regiment from defeat Ex- 
posed as they were, their flank would have been turned and thus 
swept from the field, and other regiments on his left must have shared 
the same fate. This precaution saved the regiment, and, perhaps 
gave us the victory. How much often hangs upon the coolness and' 
forethought of a single man ! To him and to his regiment largely 
belongs the honor of the victory of our arms at Pea Rido-e a vic- 
tory which decided the fete both of Arkansas and Missouri for the 
remainder of the war. 

After the battle of Pea Ridge the regiment went to BatesviUe 
Arkansas, from whence they were transferred to the army of the' 
Cumberland, to aid in the movement upon Corinth under General 
Halleck, in which they participated. Shortly after the fall of Cor 
.nth, the regiment was transferred to Buell's command, and joined 
■n the celebrated race between Bragg and Buell for LouisviUe A 
short time previous to tins march, however. Colonel Coler had re 
signed his command, but was still with his regiment. Circumstances 
beyond his control made it impossible for him to remain longer in 
the army. He had been conducting an extensive business before 
the war, and had invested largely in Southern stocks. The financi-d 
crash of 1857 had just passed; Secession, as with a breath had 
swept away the entire value of all Southern securities. For nearly 
two years he had been in the army fighting the battles of his coun- 
try just at the time when his business demanded his most care- 
453 



12 COL. WILLIAM N. f < ) I. r, R . 

fill supci-\-isioii and attention. This state of affairs made it neces- 
sary for him to resign, which he did not only with regret, but 
ao-ainst the utmost solicitations of his fellow-officers and men, and 
the expressed wish of General Grant, who offered to procure him a 
Bri'^adier-General's commission, if he would re-consider his purpose. 
'3ut others' interests as well as his own were involved in his business 
.•omplications, and however much he might cast his own aside, he 
was not a man to let another suffer through him, if he had the 
power to prevent it. The die was cast ; he came home. As a 
soldier, he had the esteem and confidence of all his fellow officers, 
and the admiration and affectionate regard of his whole command. 
" He was kind, generous, and brave ; an able officer and true 
patriot," is the testimony of one who shared the triumphs and trials 
of soldier life with him, from its beginning to its close. During 
the greater part of his stay in the army he had command of a 
brigade, and when he resigned had for some time been in command 
of the First Brigade, Second Division of the Fourth Army 
Corps. 

Upon returning home he found his business greatly embarrassed. 
Nearly one hundred thousand dollars had been swept away by South- 
ern repudiation. His absence in the army, at just the crisis in his 
affairs, led to th(^ loss of thousands more. He could not meet his 
liabilities. In a word, he was bankrupt. Some of his friends ad- 
vised him to go somewhere else and begin anew. " No," said he, 
'' I propose to stand my ground and face my difficidties, and retrieve 
my fortune right here." He did so. Engaging in his old business of 
land agent and broker, his old friends with capital stood by him. 
In a short time he had recovered from embai-rassment, paid all his 
creditors, and is now financially stronger than before the war. Pos- 
sessed of an ample personal fortune, he is known, at home and abroad, 
as one of the most reliable, honest and successful of business men. In 
reaching this result there has been no dishonesty, no knavery, not a dis- 
reputable business act, only the most legitimate and upright transac- 
tions. Such success, bv such means, argues a business capacity seldom 
454 



COL. WILLI 



surpassed in any country. In his own liome, such is the esteem in 
which he is held by his fellow citizens, that there is not a man, rich 
or poor, who envies him his success, but on the contrary, all rejoices 
in it. 

In A. D., 1S53, he was married to Miss Coi-delia Sim, the friend 
and love of his childhood and youth, an accomplished young lady 
of Knox County, Ohio, a lady every way worthy of such a hus- 
band. An intelligent, refined, and eminently Christian woman. 
His domestic relations have been of the most happy and pleasant 
character. His home is a palatial one, one of luxury and elegance ; 
but there is not a purer nor more happy one in the nation. Filled 
with healthy, frolicksome cliildren, presided over by the genial 
couple, who have earned it by their virtues and industry, it is truly 
an oasis, blooming with the verdure and flowers of taste and refine- 
ment, and musical with the ever bubbling and sparkling waters of 
pure affection; too seldom found in the social barrenness and 
parched desert of our American life. 

It would be impi-oper to close this sketch without giving a de- 
scription of the person, and an analysis of the character of whose 
histoiy we have been briefly sketching. 

In bodily presence Col. Coler is commanding. He is about five 
feet eleven and one-half inches in height, and weighs nearly one 
hundred and ninety pounds. He has no surplus flesh, and is yet 
full and round. His muscles are hard and firmly knit, and his 
health perfect. Of course, he is possessed of great strength, and in 
his younger days was reckoned among the most athletic, active 
and powerful young men in the country. He is a bundle of ener- 
gies and daring. It is said that when a child he was never known 
to be still or quiet. As he grew up to boyhood he became the ten-or 
of aU the boys in the neighborhood. He was high spirited, quick 
tempered, and though not quarrelsome, would walk half a mile any- 
time to fight a boy he did not like. Vivacious and fearless, every 
nerve trembling with energy, he was the very incarnation of mis- 
chief. And had it not been for the guiding hand of his mother, who 
455 



14 COL. WILLIAM N. CO I. EK. 

seems early to have understood his nature, given it direction and left 
her impress upon it, he might have become a curse to society instead 
of a blessing. As it is, the pugilistic tendencies and early irritabil- 
ity have all disappeared, while all his strong life, energy and will re- 
main to give strength and force to his character — enabling him to 
achieve results which those vfho have not these qualities can never 
accomplish. 

His mental qualities are of a high order. Of metaphysical acu- 
men, logical precision, quick and keen perceptions, of penetration if 
not brilliant imagination, of broad generalizing power, retentive 
memory, and ready utterances ; he is naturally possessed of those 
qualities of mind which will make themselves felt anywhere. Li 
his boyhood he borrowed " Locke's Essay on the Human Understand- 
ing," and devoured it with the greediness with which a boy may be 
supposed to devour molasses candy, or a simpering young belle the 
last sensational noveh "It was the most interesting book to me I 
had ever read," he said. He has an especial fondness for political 
economy, metaphysics and the higher mathematics. In his library 
you find such works as the following : John S. Mill, Walker, Perry, 
Says, Porter, Bestait, Bascomb, Bowen, Sir Wm. Hamilton, Locke, 
Watts, Compti, and others. All these have been studied and mas- 
tered by him. You find also the standard English and American 
poets ; histories, ancient and modern, standard works on Divinity, 
and natural sciences, the highest and purest works of fiction, and all 
ot our best essayists both European and American. 

In liis younger years he was somewhat of a poet, and sketch writer. 
Many of these effusions and efforts had an extensive circulation, 
having been copied largely into the various newspapers of the coun- 
try east and west. One fugitive piece, " Kind Words," has been 
floating around thus for twenty years and is still fresh. He was fre- 
quently solicited to become a regular contributor to our periodical 
and journalistic literature. Had he done so it is thought that 
he would have excelled as an essayist, and become no mean 
poet. 

456 



O I. . WILLI A M N . 



15 



As an orator lie is above the average. There is no doubt that if 
he had given more attention to this most difficult of aU arts, with 
his qualities of person, mind and heart, he would have taken a'front 
rank among American speakers. He was quick, readj-saw the re- 
lation of things, and read his hearers in a minute, and upon the 
stump could bring the crowd down almost equal to any "stumper" 
in the West. An instance of this was once witnessed in a political 
meeting during an exciting canvass. Douglas was appointed to 
speak-being a little late, Coler wa^ put up to fill in the time until 
he should arrive. He soon had the audience in an uproar of enthu- 
siasm. Douglas having amved took the platform and began in his 
dehberate way to address the people. He had not proceeded very 
far until it became apparent that the audience was growing restless. 
At length one man called out at the top of his voice, not knowing 
perhaps, who the « little giant " was, " For God's sake put that littlJ 
fool down and let Coler get up again." 

He is a man of large heart, ardent in his afieetions and tempera- 
ment, intense in his natiu'e— he is one of the kindest of men, and 
truest of friends. His happy face is always clothed with genial 
smiles. He is frank almost to a fault. Generous and benevolent 
his hand is always as open as his heart. He is a kind husband and an 
indulgent fiither. No one will ever accuse him of being cold heart- 
ed and selfish. The aged esteem him, the young ddight in his 
company, and little children love him. His charities are only lim- 
ited by his means. The poor and sufi-ering never appeal to him in 
vam, while no benevolent enterprise for the good of mankind is 
turned empty away. Colleges and churches feel the blessed power 
of his large donations, while at the same time every other claim 
upon his benevolence is met. There is no man in the West who ex- 
cels him in his benefactions in proportion to his means. 

His tastes and feelings are of the finest quality. Possessed of a 

disgust for everytliing coarse and low, no woman has finer sensibilities 

nor more delicate emotions and feelings. There is an undercurrent 

in his nature of tlie aeutest sensitiveness, and most poetic delicacv 

457 • 



\i\ O L . W I I. L 1 A IM N . Cl> L K K . 

His religious convictlous and beliefs are very profound. " They are," 
ho says, " tlio strongest and inteusest convictions of my nature." 
His creed is orthodox and Arminian — tliat of the Mctliodist 
Episcopal church of which he is a worthy member. His faith 
in an especial Providence is unlimited, believing that God's su- 
pervision and watchful care extends to the minutest affairs and 
events of life — to the business, the secular and everyday occurrences, 
as well as to the moi-e spiritual interests of man — a Providence, not 
arbitrary and compulsory, moving the individual about as a machine, 
but suggestive, persuasive and protective. He is the farthest possi- 
ble from being a bigot. Free from all cant he is rather secretive 
than otherwise in his religious profession — liberal and tolerant in his 
views and feelings — ho believes more in doing than professing in the 
character than in the name of a Christian. 

Every Sunday when ho is at home finds him an attentive listener, 
and devout worshipper in his church, and a happy worker in the 
Simday School, teaching a large infant chiss with the tact and in- 
terest which only those who love little children can ever have. These 
children almost idolize him, his happy, genial nature finding a ready 
response in their pure, warm and unsophisticated hearts. 

As a business man he has always had the reputation of being scru- 
pulously honest, and has always been successful. His broad gener- 
alizing mind, keen insight, and rapid faculty of combination, enable 
him to see farther, decide quicker, and act more rapidly than most 
men. What othere would call recklessness is to him the coolness of 
caution, simply because he has already gone over in his thought the 
whole ground, and sees farther than they. 

His moral character has always been stainless. He passed through 
the Mexican and late wars, as well as mingled in business and politi- 
cjd relations with all kinds of men, and through it all, his lips* never 
uttered a profane word. He is a strong temperance man in theory 
and practice — he neither indulges in strong drinks nor uses tobacco 
in any form. He has helped many a yoimg man, struggling with 
poverty, to place and rcsiu'ctability. His whole life and character 
458 



00 L. WILLIAM N 



. O L E R . 



are worthy incentives to every young man striving for excellence 
and usefulness. 

Being now in the prime of life he has many years of honor, use- 
fulness and happiness before him. May heaven spare him to im- 
prove and enjoy them. 



459 




/!lll^uAJyyCa^^ 




WTLLARJ) GLAZIER 

SOLDIER, AUTHOR, AND JOURNALIST. 
BY F. RENEHAN. 

'0 write the biography of an individual whose life has been 
uniforrnlj commendable— whose motives and endeavors may 
^p- be clearly traced to an honorable ambition, and a heart nat- 
uraUy well inclined, is a work agreeable enough to conceive 
of, but, withal, difficult of judicious execution. Where one has every- 
thing to approve and nothing to condemn— where every action re- 
viewed, bears upon itself the impress of its irreproachable origin 
and conception in conscientious conviction of duty and of right, it 
becomes, indeed, a perplexing task to indulge in well merited praise 
without, at the same time, touching upon the domain of fulsome flat- 
tery. The world is accustomed to find lights and shadows in the 
generality of prominent individual characters, and where these are 
lacking an imperfect picture is, in its estimation, an inevitable con- 
sequence. But there are those whose consistency, and sterling fidel- 
ity to preconceived ideas of truth and right is so marked, that, to 
■ for, and give publicity to, the minor faults which they may have 
■would be not only invidious, but absolutely unjust. In 
the following pages, therefore, we shall, from the requirements of the 
case, present a portrait without such darker tints as are generally 
deemed necessary to give prominence, by contrast, to the more ad- 
mirable and significant features of a subject. 

Willard Glazier, the subject of our sketch, is a native of the State 
of New York, he having been born in the town of Fowler, St. Law- 
rence county, on the 22d of August, 1841. His great-grandfather 
4G1 



2 WILL ARD OLAZIEE. 

Oliver Glazier, and great-graudmotlier, who were respectively of Irish 
and English nativity, settled in Eastern Massacliusetts at a period 
just anterior to the Colonial Revolution. Tiie former, though then 
but fourteen years of age, participated with the patriots in the battle 
of Bunker Hill, and to the last contributed his young enthusiasm 
and willing services to the cause he had espoused, thus giving early 
testimony of his devotion to the land of his adoption, and of fealty 
to the principles of popular government involved in the struggle for 
American independence. So remarkable an evidence of ancestral 
fidelity to the interests of civil liberty, could not but exercise a 
marked influence upon those of the same blood to whom the tradi- 
tion was handed down, and here we find in our subject, a scion of the 
third "•eneration, assisting in 1861, on the battle-fields of the South, 
in the maintenance of the liberty his progenitor had contributed to 
achieve in 1775, on the battle-fields of the North. This is not men- 
tioned as a singular fact— history is replete with just such coinci- 
dences — but merely for the purpose of suggesting the moral, that 
in mattei-s of patriotism, the son is only consistent when he imitates 
the example, and emulates the virtues of his sires. 

The father and mother of Captain Glazier settled in Northern New 
York with a view to devoting themselves to agricultural pursuits. 
The former, thrifty, energetic and persevering, naturally expected 
that a speedy competency would reward his enterprise and justify 
his venture. But in a region then but partially redeemed from the 
virgin forest, he had difficulties to surmount of which he had no pre- 
vious conception, and pecuniary reverses met him almost on the 
threshold of his endeavor. These reverses prevented him from giv- 
ing to his children the opportunities for mental culture that he desired, 
and young "Willard, by the time he attained his fifteenth year, had' 
only acquired the simplest rudiments of a common school education. 
His scanty draughts at the fountain of knowledge had only been 
periodical. "When eanh succeeding winter had passed and the spring 
sunshine again called the husbandman to the bleak and desolate fields, 
Willard, compelled to discard the books which had been liis cheriah- 
4G2 



WILLARD GLAZIER. 



ed companions in the viUage school, entered forthwith upon the un- 
congenial labors of the plowman, buoyant, however, and always un- 
complaining. Meanwhile, his occasional visits to the country school 
had developed in him an appetite for the acquisition of knowledge 
which soon became the controlling passion of his nature, and he be- 
gan to yearn for fields in which the brain might be exercised rather 
than the muscles and sinews of the mere material man. Thoroughly 
absolved with this idea, he fixed upon the select school of his nadve 
town as the institution best adapted to initiate him in the course 
suited to the fulfillment of his laudable ambition. His next thought 
was how to pi-ocure the means wherewith to enter its mysterious, 
and to him, sacred precincts. 

At this time fiu--bearing animals wore caught in considerable num- 
bers along those streams in northern New York which are tributary 
to the St. Lawrence. Professional trappers realized-respectable sums 
every year by following their avocation on the banks of the Oswe- 
gatchie and other neighboring rivers, and naturally enough, our young 
plowboy saw in the fur enterprise the complete fulfillment of hit 
new-born aspiration. His father was instantly consulted, the object 
of his young ambition divulged, and the trapping scheme discussed. 
Only one obstacle prevented the immediate trial of the proposed ex- 
periment. Willard's services on the farm were of the first impor- 
tance, and the then straitened circumstances of his family would not 
permit the employment of a hand to discharge the duties which de- 
volved upon his shoulders. The wings of his restless desire seemed 
about to be clipped ere yet they had made a single flight. Many a 
youth of fifteen. Under like circumstances, would have succumbed 
to the discouraging influences and allowed courage and hope, and the 
sense of a growing manhood to die out in their hearts, perhaps, for- 
ever. But he was made of better material, and felt the necessity of 
a struggle even against fate if success must be attained. After re- 
viewing the situation and measuring his probable chances in the final 
result he concluded that, with the paternal consent, he would, upon 
his own reiponsibility, risk the employment of a substitute at the 
4G3 



4 WILLARDGLiZIEE. 

plow, and, meanwhile test the value of, what proved to be, his hap- 
pily conceived idea. His purpose was carried into execution, and 
success even beyond his most sanguine expectations rewarded his im- 
tutored experiments in the trapping vocation. "With the proceeds 
of his labor he paid his employee upon the farm at the rate of fif- 
teen dollars a month, and still found himself the possessor of a part • 
of the means essential to his educational advancement. Justly ela- 
ted with the good fortune attending his first unaided exertions, and 
convinced that self-reliance and perseverance in the prosecution of 
any legitimate design are the great requisites to its perfect accom- 
plishment, he entered the select school in which his first hopes had 
centered, and at once commenced to prepare himself for an academic 
course in the " Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary," the entering of 
which was now considered the second round in the ladder of his up- 
ward progress. This part of his plan he carried into effect in tiie 
fall of 1857, and at the Institute prosecuted his studies diligently for 
two consecutive terms, up to the opening of 1858. His funds being 
now exhausted he returned to his home, and again the monotonous 
routine of farm labor employed his days and consumed the valua- 
ble time he would have devoted to higiier and more agreeable pur- 
suits. In the fall of this year he once raoi'e entered the Gouverneur 
Academy, his spring and summer savings being, he thought, sufficient 
to carry him through another term of his academic com-se. At its 
close his slender resources were entirely exhausted, and some new 
expedient must be tried by which to acquire the means to continue 
his oft interrupted studie-i. Propitious fortune led him to apply to 
the school Commissioner of his Assembly District for a position as 
teacher, which he obtained after passing a very creditable examina- 
tion, and was forthwith assigned to duty in the town of Edwards, St. 
Lawrence county, in the month of November, 1858. He had now 
attained his seventeenth year, and it became proper for him to deter- 
mine what should be the permanent occupation of his maturer years, 
so that he might at once prepare himself for its particular duties and 
responsibilities. Teaching had a peculiar charm for him, and the 
464 



W I L I. A R n 



little school at Edwards assisted iu the development of his ability as 
an instructor, which he soon learned to look upon as his true voca- 
tion. But to fill the measure of his desires he must be thoroughly 
proficient. Inadequate or superficial knowledge, he very properly 
considered but slender stays upon which to sup])ort the dignitv and 
honor of the teacher's profession. With a view, therefore, to fit 
himself thoroughly for the high and responsible duties of that call- 
ing, he resolved upon entering the State Normal School at Albany, 
and the monthly stipend received from the school at Edwards must 
now be treasured as a fund with which to facilitate that object. 
In the month of September, 1859, he was enabled to carry out his 
cherished purpose, and he placed his name, on the roll of the ISTor- 
mal School full of bright anticipations, and confident of a final 
triumph over fate and adverse circumstances. 

But he had failed to calculate the lasting qualities of his scanty 
purse, and when he had barely entered the arena to which he had 
fondly looked as the scene of his future successes, the curse of penury 
again forced him out into the rugged "work-day world," and away 
from the haunts around which clustered his higher hopes and warm- 
est aftections. Again he sought and obtained a school — this time at 
Schodack Center, Rensselaer county, from whence, after teaching a 
short term, he returned to Albany to resume his studies, but only to 
repeat his former experience. Wearied with his unrequited strug- 
gles, but not dismayed or disheartened, he retraced his steps home- 
ward, and in the sunmier of 1860 organized and taught a select 
school in the town of Edwards, which he conducted with singular 
ability until the winter of 1860-'61, when he assumed charge of the 
public school at East Schodack or Scott's Corners, as it was variously 
named, in Rensselaer county. In the spring of 1861, the main pur- 
pose of his life still unforgotten, and his modest purse partially re- 
plenished, he returned to the Normal Institute at Albany, ?,nd with 
renewed vigor, resinned his pursuit of the object for the possession 
of which he had contended so long and unremittingly. 

Dp to this period, it will be perceived, a single controlling passion 
46r) 



« W I r, T, A R n O I, A 7, 1 K K . 

influonced the very delibcnito action of our youthful worker in edu- 
cational ticlds— an absolute greed for scholastic knowledge. In his 
progress to its acquisition a moral power, a strength of will and a 
■perseverance invulnerable to difficulties were all developed in his 
character, and though he never reached the exact goal toward which 
he jounievi'd, it was not because these virtues had become dormant 
in liis nature, but because duty compelled him to other fields where- 
on his country demanded his hearty assistance and liis highest sac- 
rifices. 

The ominous thunder which rolled up from Foi't Sumter in 1861, 
startling tlie entire Nt)rtli, awakening its people from their dreams 
of jioaco and tiie nation from its repose, had scarcely died away 
upon the breeze which bore it to our doors, when the citizen soldiery 
of the endangered republic were prepared for the bloody struggle of 
which it was the dreadful portent. Among the first to enter tho 
military service of the country was the young subject of our notice. 
Leaving the Normal School at Albany, he repaired to Troy, New 
York, and enlisted as a private in the "Harris Light Cavalry," 
on the 6th day of August, 1861, he then being but nineteen yeai-s 
of age. To the record of this regiment there is no occasion to refer. 
Its history is to be traced in almost every memorable engagement 
along the line of the Potomac, from the disaster at Manassas to the 
crowning glory of the war before the rebel trenches in the vicinity 
of Richmond. 

Willard Glazier was everywhere a sharer in its toils and dangere, 
and a participator in its triumphs and defeats. But his career was 
marked by more episodes of almost romantic interest than usually 
fell to the lot of his no less courageous comrades in arms. Of these 
there is no occasion to speak in detail ; his own graphic pen has 
pictured them with becoming modesty in those admirable contribu- 
tions to the literature of the war, " The Capture, Prison-Fen and 
Escape," "Three Tears in the Federal Cavalry," and "Virginia's 
Battle-Ficlds." This sketch, however, would be incomplete were 
these evidences of his sterling character and unswerving patriot- 
^ 4'36 



WILLABD GLAZIER. 7 

ism entirely overlooked, especially since tliey evince in an eminent 
'degree the same moral strength, fixedness of purpose and faith in 
final success vfhich had marked his earlier and more peaceful en- 
deavors. It has already been stated that he participated in most 
of the actions in which the Army of the Potomac was engaged. But 
he was not the only one of the family now maintaining the tradi- 
tional honor of his name upon many battle-fields. His fiither proudly 
bore a musket in the Ninety-second New York Infantry, and many 
of his brave comrades live to-day to attest his presence in the deadly 
struggle of the seven days. Two uncles and two cousins shared 
the campaigns of Northern Virginia, and three of these sleep in 
graves to which they were consigned by the bullet and the shell. 

Through the fiery furnace, however, Willard invariably passed in 
comparative safety, though not always entirely unscathed nor with- 
out monitions of his proximity to a soldier's honorable death. At 
the second battle of Manassas, whilst carrying a message fi-om Gen- 
eral Ivilpatrick to General Bayard, a bullet passed through his hat 
and at the same instant his horse was killed under him. Again, at 
the cavalry battle of Upperville, Va., fought June ISth, 1863, ho 
lost his horse in the van of the conflict, and in the cavah-y fight 
at Buckland Mills, October 19th of the same year, a horse was 
again slain under him, and he himself fell bleeding and senseless 
beneath the hoofs of retreating and advancing squadrons. Awaking 
at length to a state of semi-consciousness, he vaguely realized the 
desolation and solemnity of his situation — he was wounded and a 
prisoner. 

Together with other prisonei-s, he was at once conveyed under 
uuard to "Warrenton, whence he was removed to Culpepper, and then 
successively to the prisons at Eichmond, Danville, Macon, Savannah, 
Charleston and Columbia. The story of his prison life is replete 
with varied information and incidents, though, perchance, too much 
encumbered with instances of human suffering on the one side, and 
human depravity on the other, to attach to it more than a morbid, 
or at least a melancholy, interest. Like the lives of the thousands 
467 



S -WIL LARD GLAZIER. 

of olhei-i who endured multiplied agonies of body and mind under 
the vigorous and sometimes barbaric discipline of the Libbjs and 
Aiidersonvilles of the 'South, his became so galling a burden that 
death itself were preferable to continued endurance — the grave a 
welcome rest and repose. The value of freedom was never so thor- 
oughlv appreciated as now that dungeon bars stood between him 
and its full possession. Liberty, however, must be regained if pos- 
sible, even though danger and death lurked in the road that led out 
into the bright and happy world. His course once determined upon, 
his natural, but long dormant, energies were instantly bent to the 
hazardoits enterprise. The brain, which in his earlier days had 
never lacked for an expedient, did not fail him now, and his cour- 
ageous heart trembled under no forebodings as to the probable con- 
sequences. His plans perfected, and the opportune moment arrived, 
on the 20th of November, 1SG4, more than one year after his cap- 
ture, he cleared bis prison limits and found himself a free man once 
more, though still upon the soil of South Carolina. Pushing forth- 
with in the direction where Federal troops were, in his judgment, 
most likely to be found, he struggled on through difficulties and 
dangers dm-ing the succeeding nights and days up to the 15t.h of 
December, when weary, footsore, oppressed with hunger and his 
heart growing faint under the weight of constantly accumulating 
trials, he was recaptured by a scouting party of the enemy and his 
face again turned in the direction of the Prison-Pen — the late scene 
of his privations and bitter sufferings. On the journey, however, he 
succeeded in effecting his escape, but was retaken on the same day 
and placed under more vigorous surveillance. But the brief liberty 
he had experienced, though tasted in bodily anguish and continued 
anxiety, was so sweet that his appetite for its further enjoyment 
must be gratified at all hazards, and despite the bayonet and the 
ball. Accordingly he was sleeplessly on the alert, and at last, elud- 
ing the vigilance of his guards at Sylvania, Ga., on the 19tli day of 
December, was in flight for the Federal lines, which, to his intense 
joy, he succeeded in reaching on the 23d of December, after twenty- 
4G8 



LARD O L A Z I K le . 



eight days of incessant toil and misery lieroically endured on tl.e 
b.ghways and in the swamps of South Carolina and Georgia. 
_ Tins portion of our young sol.liei-'s career is full of wliolesome 
instruction. It teaches a lesson that might be learned with advan- 
tage by older and reputedly wiser men. It speaks eloquently of the 
n..=».e,.. of those elemente which must enter into the prosecutio/ 



„ " =- i^.iici iui,u uie prosecutioi 

ot every successful endeavor. It evinces a will strong and vio-orous 
without perversity; an energy untiring, but active onlv in laudable 
pursuits; a quickness of conception and a promptitude in execu- 
tion virtues always admirable, but especially so in one who was 
reaUy the architect of his own character before he Iiad even ap 
preached what are generally termed the years of disc.vtion 

As soon as practicable after his retui-n to the Federal lines, Captain 
Glazier reported himself for duty, and to the close of tlie war con- 
tinned to manifest in action his devotion to the republic and an utter 
• abnegation of self wherever its interests were involved. Havin^ 
passed through all the various grades, from private to brevet cap"- 
tain, consoled with the reflection that his record was highly honor- 
able, and his military life without reproach, he turned irom the 
fields whereon the integrity of the Union had'heen vindicated, to 
the quietude and welcome rest of the unforgotten home on the banks 
ot the Oswegatchie. 

Here he soon conceived the idea of embodying the experience and 
knov ledge of events which he had acquired during his military life 
in a series of volumes to be issued to subscribers only. Naturally 
the .omantic incidents connected with his capture and escapes, to 
gether with the details of life in Southern prisons, with which l-o 
was entn-ely tann-liar, were selected as the basis of the first volume. 
Th,s was first pnbhshed in 1865, by Joel Munsell, of Albany, under 
the title of "The Capture, Prison-Pen and Escape.'' It wis sub 
sequently re-stereotyped in Boston and re-issued in Hartford in 186r' 
and was stereotyped a third tin^e in New York and its publication 
continued m 1868. Its success was unprecedented. " UnCe Tom's 
Cabin in ten years failed to reach a circulation in the United States 
469 



10 W 1 1. I, A R D O L A Z I i: R . 

vi\m\\ to lliat wliich (his work liad iittaiiiod witliin five years from 
the date of its first publication. Up to the present time upwards 
of 250,000 copies have been sold, nor is the demand yet satisfied. 
It has thus far realized to the "Soldier Author" about seventy-five 
thousjind dollars — a very handsome profit, it must be confessed, from 
a fii-st experiment in the domain of literary endeavor. 

In 1S()0 his work entitled ''Three Years in the Federal Cavalry"' 
was written, followed in 1808 by one of tlie most graceful produc- 
tions of his pen, "Virginia's Battle-Fields." Of these the impar- 
tial press of the country, irrespective of political party opinion, 
have spoken in words of well merited approbation. They are char- 
acterized by a modest, unpretentious style. Through wliich tlie au- 
thor's- paramount regard for unembelHshed truth is so palpable that 
one hardly knows which most to admire, the simple excellence of 
the productions or the rare veracity of the producer. 

From what wo have recorded, it will be seen that Captain Glazier 
has justly merited any and all encomiums he may have received 
during his varied and interesting career. In his youth his character 
was marked by many of the peculiaiities which are supposed to at- 
tach only to manhood. Such a one was, we are willing to believe, 
capable of impiu-ting dignity even to the position of the humble 
plow-boy. The meritoriousnoss of the teacher and the soldier is 
beyond question. In the tiret he was diligent, earnest and compe- 
tent ; in the second, brave to a fault and patriotic. For his excel- 
lence in the one position, ho was eulogized by school trustees and 
commissioners; for his discretion and courage in the other, he was 
complimented by General Davies on the battle -tield at Brandy 
Station. Such honoi-s as these are not accorded in the spheres 
to which they belong indiscriminately, or where there is a lack of 
merit ; in this instance, tliey were exacted by a character entitled 
to recognition ; by one who has reflected honor upon his name 
a; id race, and won for himself a i>osition among the progressive men 
of t)ur day and generation. 

470 




/;!^^<^^ 



HENRY G. DAVIS. 

'M^f^0'^ this great Republic of ours, there is an opportunity for 

tW, ^^^U '"^" ^^ demonstrate what is in him. If he has intel- 

^M ^^^^^^^ abilities they need not remain long latent or hidden. 

' If a young man desire wealth, there are many safe avenues 

that ensure a competence, if industrious. If he desire intellectual 

attainments, then our American free institutions are open-handed 

and bestow liberally on all who seek for knowledge in the sciences, 

arts, or religion. 

The Hon. Henry G. Davis, elected United States Senator for 
six years from West Virginia, March 4th, 1871, has demonstrated 
that, if a young man would make bis mark high up, either intellect- 
ually, politically, or financially, he can succeed. 

Our United States Senator was the second son of Caleb and Louisa 
Davis, now deceased. Bom in Baltimore, Md., November ICth, 
1823, his father at one time possessed considerable wealth, but, by 
endorsing for friends and losses in business, ho was suddenly bereft 
of his accumulated means, and died broken-hearted, leaving his 
widow with live orphaned children to support and care for. 

Mr. A -, who knew Mr. Davis in his boyhood, writes of liim 

thus: "Passing backwards and forwards on the Baltimore Eailroad, 
I often saw young Davis, a boy of eighteen, going to his work in 
the morning and returning in the evening. He was working a little 
patch of land at a distance, and helping to maintain his mother 
and two younger brothers. Time passed on, and he, advancing 
from one step to anothei-, at last became conductor on this road. He 
aided in educating his two younger brothers, and he deserves his 
place in the Senate of the United States." 

Young Davis was connected with the Baltimore K.uliv.ad for four- 
471 



teen yeai-s, being advanced from the suhordinato situation of brako- 
man to differeut positions of trust — passenger conductor, assistant 
supervisor of trains, and agent at Piedmont. In 1S5S, be resigned 
his situation and accepted the Presidency of the Piedmont Savings 
Biwk. This year he formed a partnership with his brothei-s in tlie 
produce, provision, lumber, and coal trjtde ; and it is but just to 
mention that his ability as a financier is well known in "West Vir- 
ginia. Until the few past yeai-s, he has devoted his time and en- 
ergies to mercantile pui-suits, and the comfortable competence which 
he has ama^ised, has served to give expression to his well known 
giMierofity in many substantial acts of assistance to the deserving. 
He always sympathized with our " Federal" Government, and dur- 
ing our late civil war voted against secession of Virginia. 

Senator Davis's tii-st appearance in public life was as the Repre- 
sentative of Hampshire County, Virginia, in the House of Delegates. 
In 1S66 he was elected as a "Conservative Democrat," and was ap- 
pointed second on the Finance Committt^ of the House. Having 
been a good financier for himself, he was judiciously chosen for the 
allaii-s of the Government. In 1S67 he declined re-election to the 
Legislature. In 1S68 he was elected by the West Vii^inia State 
Convention a delegate to the " Xatioual Democratic Convention," 
which met at Xew York, July ith. In the fall of this year he was 
unanimously nominated by the Democratic Senatorial Convention 
of the tenth district, composed of the counties of Hampshire, Mor- 
gsin. Hardy, Mineral, Grant, and Pendleton. This district had 
always gone Ecpublican by lai-ge majorities. Mr. Davis was elected, 
and again placed on the Committee of Finance. In the fall of 
1S70 he was again unanimously nominated for the State Senate and 
elected by an increased majority, and was made Chairman of the 
Committee of Ttxxation and Finance. He was offered the nomina- 
tion for Congress by the Democratic Congressional Convention of 
1S70, but declined. In 1S71, w'lile a member of the State Senate, 
he was elected to the United States Senate Ly a vote of 53 to 22, 
for six years from March 4tti, 1S71. 
472 



UKN14YO. DAVIS. 3 

Mr. Davis, while making no pretensions to attainments that mere- 
ly contribute to the glitter and show of Congressional service, brings 
to the discharge of his duties a jiractical ability, and unquestionable 
fidelity to the best interest of the State he represents. He is a self- 
made man, an indefatigable worker, as every one must be who has 
attained eminence in any profession of life. He has fine conversa- 
tional powers, social qualities, pleading manners, good business tal- 
ent, expresses himself in a clear and forcible manner in debate, and 
compares fovorably with members of the Senate, and is as hospitable 
as a real old Virginia gentleman. We quote the following extract 
from the Baltimore Sun, November 28, 1868 : 

" TuE Hon. H. G. Davis.— This gentleman was formei-ly a we.l 
known and esteemed citizen of Baltimore, and for many years held 
a most responsible position on the Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad, 
which office he resigned and settled iu West Virginia, whei-e he en- 
in business, and by energy and industry accumulated a large 
At the late election in that State he was nominated by his 
friends as the Democratic candidate for the State Senate from the 
Tenth Senatorial District, and triumphantly elected, overcoming, by 
his popularity and energy, a large vote wliich was counted against 
him when he entered the contest. We make the following extract 
from a long article in the Martimhurg New Em : 

" ' Mr. Davis entered the conteit in the District composed of the 
counties of Hampshu-e, Morgan, Minei-al, Hardy, Grant, and Pen- 
dleton, with a Eepublican majority against him of about 4,000, and 
yet he was triumphantly elected. We are not in the habit of deal- 
ing in eulogy, or of giving men credit for that which they do not 
deserve, but we cannot refrain from saying that Mr. Davis has no 
one to thank for his election ; that it is attributable alone to his own 
indomitable will and indefatigable labors. Without any experience 
as a public speaker, he yet met his opponent on the stump, and in 
every instance came off first best. We heartily o., tulate the 
voters of the Tenth District on the election of the man of their 
choice. It may be said of them— well done, good and faithful serv- 
473 



4 n E N U Y O . D A V I S . 

ants; for ho ia a clever and courteous gentleman, of unsullied honor, 
of incorruptible inteicrity, and possessing ability as a financier second 
to none in the State.' " 

Among many favorable notices from papers, an extract from the 
Wheelijig Register is selected, January 27th, 1871 : 
' " Mr. Davis is a clear thinker, a man of strong common sense, and 
possessed of indomitable energy. He will be one of the working 
members of the Senate, leaving others to do the talking. He has 
many qualities that will tit him for usefulness to the State and influ- 
ence among his fellow Senators. He is a representative of the class 
of ' self-made men,' and owes the position he has attained to his 
own native ability and force of character. There are very few pub- 
lic men indeed, even in the country, who have surmounted as many 
obstacles and achieved as many successes as has Mr. Davis. Com- 
mencing life in a subordinate position in the employ of the Balti- 
more and Ohio Eailroad Company, he has risen, by successive and 
rapid gradations, to wealth and great political influence. He has 
been a member of the State Legislature during the past five years, 
and was re-elected to the State Senate last fall. His having attained 
his present position notwitlistanding the adverse circumstances of 
his early life, is proof of his unusual ability." 
474 




</^ £<^ -<e^^-^p?^^:^ 



HENRY COOPER. 

^^EXATOR HENRY COOPER ^as bom in Columbia, 

^ Maury county, Tennessee, on the 22d of Au<r., 1827, and is' 

^therefore, now in his forty-fouith year. His ancestors, both 

K^ paternal and maternal, were natives of South Carolina, from 

which State they migrated to Tennessee at an early period. 

His father, Matthew D. Cooper, was a successful merchant in Co- 
lumbia, and reared a large family, three of whom have risen to emi- 
nence in law and politics by dint of untiring and steady persever- 
ance. 

Senator Cooper was educated at Jackson College in Columbia 
where he graduated in 1847, and immediately afterwards he read 
law at Shelbyville, and commenced its practice in 1850 in partner- 
ship with an elder brother, the Hon. Edmund Cooper, subsequently 
a member of Congress, and Assistant Secretaiy of the Treasmy un- 
der President Johnson. 

In 1853, Mr. Cooper was nominated by the Whig Convention of 
Bedford and Rutherford counties as the candidate of that party for 
the legislature from these counties, and this without his knowledge 
or procurement. The party majority in the district was two hun- 
dred and fifty, and yet such was Mr. Cooper's popularity that he de- 
feated his opponent by a majority of five hundred votes. About the 
time his term of seiwice expired the dissolution of the Whicr party 
took place, and the Know-Nothing organization was founded upon 
us ruins. Mr. Cooper refused his adhesion to this organization and 
returned to the practice of his profession. He was, however a^ain 
nominated for the legislature in 1857, from Bedford, without'hirso- 
licitation, and again successful after a most excitin<r contest 
476 



2 HKNEYCOOrKB. 

It was in tins legislature that the struggle arose between the op- 
posing parties in reference to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
and the approval of the resolutions of Senator Douglas. 

lie took decided grounds against the repeal notwithstjinding the 
course of his party in ailhcring to tlie opposite side. 

At the expiration of this his second term in the State legislature, 
Mr. Cooper again resumed the practice of his profession. 

In ISGO he was sent as a delegate to the Baltimore Convention, 
assembled to nominate a candidate of the Union party for the Pres- 
idenc}'. lie was a firm friend of Mr. Bell in the Convention, as, 
indeed, he had always been, having warmly supported Jiim for the 
Senate from his State in 1S53 and 1S57, while a member of the leg- 
islature. Upon the defeat of that gentleman, and the election of 
Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, Mr. Cooper was one of the many 
thousands in Tennessee, who, at that time opposed the dissolution of 
the Union, and when the attack on Fort Sumter was made, and 
Tennessee voted out by a majority equal to that by which she had 
refused to join the Confederacy at the election held the March pre- 
vious, he was one of the few men in the State who refused to join 
the Eevolutionary party, and remained firm and out-spoken, in his 
allegiance to the old government. 

No one who h.is not experienced the difficulties and trials to which 
the advocates of an unpopular cause are on all hands exposed, can 
appreciate the situation of Senator Cooper during the prevalence of 
the great war fever that raged so violently in Tennessee upon the 
receipt of the news from Fort Sumter. 

Many of the leading citizens of Tennessee, among whom was Mr. 
Bell himself, though at heart opposed to the whole scheme, gave 
Tway under the immense pressure brought to bear against them, and 
became open advocates of secession. 

But !Mr. Cooper, though urged and entreated by his friends, could 

not be induced to give countenance to a doctrine, which, if admitted, 

would prove subversive of all the ends for which the Government was 

instituted among men. It s;uldcncd bis heart to know that such a 

47G 



EHET COOP] 



wide difference existed between himself and his friends and kindred, 
but the stem demands of duty left no course but that of resolute op- 
position to a movement which, if persisted in, he felt would result 
in anarchy and ruin. Daring the terrible strife that followed the 
secession of liis State, Mr. Cooper was in no sense a partizan. 

His principles were broad and comprehensive. He simply want- 
ed the Union preserved, and that accomplished, lie favored the im- 
mediate restoration of every man engaged in the rebellion, to the 
rights of American citizenship. 

His personal relations with those he opposed, were always of the 
most friendly and pleasant character. He proscribed no one, but 
used his power and influence during the progress of the war in 
" ameliorating the condition of the families of his friends and neigh- 
bors who were engaged in the Rebellion, and to-day no Confederate 
is more popular among his old friends, soldiers and associates than 
is Judge Henry Cooper, who, though opposed to them in war, was 
yet the cause of aUeviating much of their suflFering, and proved their 
staunchest friend when the cause for ^^■hich they fought was over- 
thrown. 

In 1862, after the occupation of Shelbyvilleby the Federal troops, 
the Judge of the State Circuit Court for Bedford county resigned, 
and Mr. Cooper was appointed in his stead. 

He several times offered his resignation, but it was in every in- 
stance rejected, and he continued on tlie bench until the close of the 
war. Upon Mr. Brownlow's election as governor, he again offered 
his resignation, but its acceptance was refused by the governor, who 
made the refusal the subject of a special message to the legislature. 
^ Upon the petition of the whole bar of his circuit, without excep- 
tion, Mr. Cooper withdrew his resignation and again tendered it in 
1868, when it was accepted. While on the bench many of the main 
leading questions growing out of the late civil war came before him 
for adjudication. Among the number was the case of Eidley Sher- 
brook, which was a petition for a mandamus to compel Sherbrook, 
the Register, under the franchise law, passed by the legislature of 



4 HENKYOOOPER. 

Tennessee in 1865, to grant the petitioner a certificate entitling 
liini to a vote, in violation of that law. The validity of the act itself, 
under the organic law, was involved in the discussion, and Judge 
Cooper in an able and exhaustive opinion, held that the law was 
unconstitutional at a time when a reign of terror was prevalent 
throughout the State, and when a judge who dared maintain Iiis 
independence was in danger of impoachment, trial and conviction 
at the hands of a partizau legislature. An appeal was taken from 
Judge Cooper's decision to the Supreme Court of Tennessee. The 
judgment was reversed by tliat court and an appeal carried to the 
Supremo Court of the United States, but before a trial could be had 
there, the petitioner died, and a decision was rendered unnecessary 
by the political revolution in Tennessee, which resulted in the elec- 
tion of Governor Sentar and a general enfranchisement of the people 
of that State. 

In another case that came before him while on the bench, ho de- 
cided that contracts made for Confederate money, •within the Con- 
federate lines, were valid and binding — the value of Confederate 
money at the time of the breach being the measure of damages. 
Although the Supreme Court of Tennessee decided a case involving 
similar principles differently, yet the opinion of Judge Cooper has 
been sustained by the highest judicial authority in the United States, 
in the case of Thorington B. Smith, decided in 18G7. 

In ISGl he was nominated on the electoral ticket of McClellan 
and Pendleton, but on account of the active hostihty of Andrew 
Johnson, then militaiy governor of the State, it was thought advis- 
able by the friends of the ticket to withdraw it. 

On tlie 22d of February, 1S6G, he presided over the first State Con- 
vention of the Conservatives in Tennessee after the war. InlSGG he 
accepted a professorship in the Lebanon Law School, where he contin- 
ued until the summer of IStJS, when he resigned and again resumed 
tlie practice of law in partnership with his brother, Hon. "W. F. Cooper 
once a judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, one of the compil- 
ers of the code of that State, and a lawyer of unquestioned ability. 
478 



E N K y O O O P E E . 



In 1SC9, while on a visit to St. Lonis, be was nominated by tlie 
anti-proscriptionists in Davidson countj as their candidate for the 
State Senate without his knowledge, and was subsequently over- 
whohningly elected. It was during this session of the legislature 
tliat the memorable senatorial contest took place between th3° friends 
of Mr. Johnson and the combination that had gathered at the capi- 
tal to secure the defeat of that gentleman. 

As the speaker of both houses of the legislature had been cliosen 
from the middle division of Tennessee, it was tliouglit fair and de- 
sirable as a matter of expediency to select the candidate for the 
Onited States Senate from the western division, and Hon. Emerson 
Etheridge was chosen as the standard-bearer of a large majority of 
the party opposed to Mr. Johnson. Mr. Etheridge, however, failed 
to command the full strength of the opposition, and after several 
ballots and much delay, a caucus was held, and it was unanimously 
agreed to cast the united vote of the opposition for Mr. Cooper 
which was accordingly done, resulting in his election by a majority 
of four votes over Mr. Johnson. 

Judge Cooper was married in Shelbyville in 1850, and his family 
now consists of his wife, three daughters and two sons. 

Judge Cooper is a quiet modest-looking gentleman of medium 
stature, compactly formed, with a full, large well-shaped head and 
bke eyes. His manners are easy and gentlemanly; his temper 
affable, jomed with a generous nature and an innate delicacy of 
feehng. A professional man by education and habit, he has formed 
no love for the allurement of politics, and is absolutely devoid of 
ambition for political distinction. He was never a seeker after 
office. In every instance in which he served as an officer in any 
department, the office literaUy sought him, and even when chosen 
as United States Senatoi-a position wWch so many distin-^uished 
and great men have spent their lives in endeavoring to attain-the 
honor was conferred upon him without his solicitation or any effort 
on his part to secure it. 

479 




FREDERICK A. SAWYER 

^"•■■^AS born in Bolton, Worcester County, Mass., December 
12th, 1822. He attended the schools of Bolton and the 



^ neighboring towns, and subsequently was graduated among 
the high scholars of liis class, at Harvard University, in 
1844. His natural qualifications fitted him for the duties which he 
then at once assumed, and, as a teacher in the States of Maine, New 
Hampshire, and Massachusetts, he evinced that ability Avhich, in 
time, drew upon him the attention of men far removed from the 
scones of his labors, one result of which was that, in 1859, Mr. Mem- 
minger, of South Carolina, Chairman of the Board of Commission- 
ers for Public Schools, came to Boston, where Mr. Sawyer was then 
residing, and invited him to accept the situation of Pi-incipal of the 
State Normal School for Girls, at Charleston. Mr. Sawyer in 
1854, had married a daughter of the late Ira Gay, Esq., of Nashua 
N. H., and was, at this time, the father of two daughters. He con- 
sidered the offer, therefore, Avith gravity, as involving more than 
a question of temporary and personal comfort. Mr. Memminger 
overruled all his objections, Mrs. Sawyer consented to the choice of 
a new homo, and they cast their fortunes with the South, bidding 
farewell to New England, loving it stiU, but owning no longer a 
share in its protection. Mr. Sawyer's success, in bis new field of 
labor, was marked. His pupils appreciated the thoroughness, gen- 
tleness, power, and patience, which distinguished his metliods of 
tuition. His Icindly, yet impressive manner, inspired confidence and 
zeal in the dullest and most timid of his scholai^, and the parents 
grew to honor the teacher, in watching the progress of their chil- 
dren. But the horrors of civil war were smouldering beneath the 
481 



2 FREUERICKA.SAWVEE. 

feet of both the teacher and the taufjht, and at the clofeo of ISGl. tlio 
antagonistic feeling sliowed itself on every side. But through the 
tcmi>e*t, which raged without intermission, Mr. Sawyer bore him- 
self gallantly. Ke neither concealed his sympathies nar connections, 
nor did ho force them uninvited : set apart from politics by the na- 
ture of his duties, he yet manfully held his opinions, for the benefit 
of all who might ask them. He neither gave adhesion to the Con- 
federate Government, nor did ho plot against the mistaken people 
who had kindly welcomed him to their midst in the peaceful past. 
Traps were set for him, which his keen intelligence did not fail to 
disregard, and we may safely say that no man sliowed himself more 
open in his allegiance to the United States, and more worthy of 
honor, by the calm nobility and consistency of his conduct, than did 
Ml". Sawyer. But the position was not a pleasant, and sometimes, 
scarcely a safe one. His immediate friends could not but feel that 
he were best away, and, in September, ISCi, after many unavailing 
efforts, procm-ed liim a passport through the lines for himself and 
his family. 

On his arrival at the North, he engaged heartily and effectively 
in the political canvass then pending, and made many patriotic ad- 
dresses in support of the re-election of Mr. Lincoln. At the cessji- 
tion of hostilities, he returned to Charleston as Collector of Internal 
Revenue for the Second District of South Carolina, the fii-st civil 
a])pointment made in the State after the war, and was very cordially 
received by the citizens. 

At the first session of the General Assembly, in July, 1S68, held 
under the new constitution of tlie State, he was elected to the Senate 
of the United States, which seat he still ably fiills. During the Fortieth 
Congress, he was a meu>ber of the Committee on Private Land 
Claims, and the Committee on Pensions. In the Furty-first Con- 
gress, he was a member of the Committees on "Education and 
Labor," on " Private Land Claims," and on " Appropriations." Of 
the fii-st named he is chairman, and on the last his labors are not 
second in vidue to those of any of its members. 
482 



FEEDEEICK A. 8. 



Mr. Sawyer holds no subordinate place in the Senate. « Without 
haste, without rest," he made his position, and it is one of whicli his 
frionds may well be proud, and with which his constituents may 
^^•cll be satisfied. Not eager to be heard, but always speaking at 
the nght moment, and to the point in question, he is listened to 
with respect, and his utterances are not distilled into nnhcedin<. ears 
Emmeutly pmctical, he is more anxious to convince by his ar<.u- 
mcnts, than to dazzle by his eloquence. '' 

In social life, his manner is genial, briglit, and insouciant, his 
conversation full of repartee, liveliness and jest, but in the Senate he 
IS grave, well balanced, and deliberate. He often uses sarcasm as a 
weapon, but never seeks to crush by wit alone, a measure which he 
would assail. Thoroughly invested with the facts he discusses, and 
undaunted by any array of opposition, he is powerful as an aUv, and 
formidable as an antagonist. 

It is no easy matter for an honest man to bear himself without re- 
proach, as representing a Southern State in these days. Between 
the blaze of rampant Eadicalism and the burnt ont fires of Secession 
there ,s a constant necessity to follow the right and straight path.' 
Mr. Sawyer has done this unswervingly ; in his speech on the re- 
moval of disabilities, delivered in the Senate on 21st March 1871 
there are two paragraphs which embody the natural feelin<.s of one' 
who IS called upon to act in the interest of two classes, and who is 
deternnned to speak the truth irrespective of party. Of the old 
dominant class in South Carolina, he said : 

" I take not into the account the shrewd demagogue and trickster 
who had, possibly, no conviction, no feith, no principles, but who 
was ready and ripe for revolution, let it take what form it would 
so that he might prosper. I am now speaking of the great mass 
of the people. And. I insist that however unsound the reasoning 
which led them to secession, rebellion, and war, they were honest fn 
entering upon the struggle, honest in its continuance, and to-day 
honestly beheve they did right. Events have proved that they blund- 
ered; but they do not admit that a blunder is of nece3sity a crime 



483 



4 F E E I) i: K I C K A . 8 A W Y E E . 

They are not penitent ; penitence implies consciousness of guilt. They 
cannot say they are penitent without baseness and falsehood. Look 
not, therefore, for a declaration of penitence except from those whom 
you will not care to trust, with or without such declarations. Discard 
Ihe idea that the masses of those who fought our armies for four long, 
ireary years will ever tell their children that they fought in a cause 
^Iiey believed to be a bad one." 

***** 
" But while we hold it to be one of the highest praises to which 
one can lay claim, that he stood manfully by what we believed was 
the Tight in the late contest ; while we would leave a record of loyal- 
ty to our children and our children's children, as a priceless legacy, 
let us not unnecessarily keep open the wounds which the terrible 
struggle has left, by imputations of a want of fidelity to conscientious 
convictions on the part of those who have not this legacy to leave 
l^ehind them." 

Thoughtless or malignant men in his party point to words like 
these as indicating sympathy with the Democratic party ; but com- 
ing from a man, whose devotion to the Government has always 
been nndisputable, they remind one in their generous ring of what 
was said long since by James Louis Petigru, with regard to our 
Revolutionary war. 

" History is false to her trust when she betrays the cause of truth, 
even under the influence of patriotic impulses. It is not true that 
all the virtue of the country was in the Whig camp, or that all of 

the Tories were a band of ruffians Their cause deserved to 

fail; but their sufferings are entitled to respect. Prejudice has 
blackened their name ; but history will speak of them as they were, 
with their failings and their virtues." I think that the grand old 
man who spoke those words, fifteen years ago, would have recog- 
nized a kindred spirit in the subject of this sketch. 

Nor does the Senator fail to render full justice to the black man : 
nor will he admit that, in the new order of things, the freedraan 
has failed to prove his claim to a share of political power. 
4S4 



FEEDEKICK A. SAWYEE. 5 

In tlie same speech he says: "No man has a higlier sense of 
what we owe to that race for their generally exemplary conduct 
during the last few years, than I have. Their progress in education 
and in general civilization since their emancipation has been won-, 
derful. And even as legislators, and as the incumbents of otlier 
public positions, the wonder is not that they have done so ill, but 
that they have done so well. That they have been able, with the 
slight advantages they had hitherto enjoyed, to get on at all in many 
public positions to which they have been elevated, is matter of just 
pride to them and to their friends ; and I know that my views in 
regard to the disadvantages under which they entered upon their 
new career are shared by those of their race whose education and 
experience have best enabled them to consider the whole subject 
dispassionately." 

And he adds, with a full knowledge of the matter involved : 
"I have never been their flatterer, but I have always been their 
friend." .... "I believe that the attempt to set up State govern- 
ments in the South, without the participation therein of the mas3 
of the intelligence and the property of the States to be governed, 
was a grave error. I believe that but for that error we should to- 
day have a condition of prosperity and good government in South 
Carolina and in other Southern States altogether higher than ever 
obtained there before, and that a majority of our people would be 
in happy accord on all national questions with the political party 
to w'hich yon, sir, and I belong, and whose great principles we chei'ish. 

" But, sir, until you place the whole Southern people where you 
can demand of each of them the exercise of such official functions as 
the people shall desire to devolve upon him, you fail to fix upon 
them that responsibility for violations of law and order which they 
should all be made to bear. Until you recognize the fact that the 
wealth and intelligence of a community will always exert a power- 
ful influence in controlling its affairs, and that ft is your interest to 
enhst that influence on your side by every means in your power, a 
condition of discontent will exist." 
485 



FBKDliKI 



Of course, sentiments, broad and generous as the above, draw 
aBimadversion from those wlvose narrow minds contemplate affairs 
frorn a different stand-point, but it is not to be feared that Mr. 
Sawyer will now, or ever, sink honest convictions for the* sake of 
party interest. 

Such has been his entire political course, especially during the 
Forty -fu-st Congress, when various bills, nearly affecting the State 
of bis adoption, have so constantly occupied the attention of tho 
Senate. 

In personal appearance, Mr. Sawyer is extremely prepossessing 
lie is tall, and, with advancing years, has assumed a not unbecom' 
ing portliness. He is blond, ruddy, with a full beard and moustache, 
expressive eyes, and a very pleasing smile. Uis tone is cultivated, 
his conversation animated and often sparkling. He relates well 
and is an admirable companion. An excellent husband and de- 
voted father, he is, nevertheless, an admirer of all who deserve 
admiration in tho other sex, without affectation or obtrusiveness in 
his attentions to any, while a slight touch of courtly gallantry sits 
well upon him, and makes his attentions agreeable to the most fas- 
tidious of " fair ladies." 

486 




i'l. 



/) 



'Hi' J^^y 



SA^IUEL O. POMEEOT, KATTSAS. 

Br F. H. Greer. 



"'^Mr'^^'^ T is 1)60011111)2 quite common for individuals, as well as 

y^^ families, in tliis country, and especially in Now Enf^land, 

"^^ to note their origin, and feel an interest in the history 
of their ancestors. 

In the new States of the growing West it is thought less of. 
The question there is — What of the man himself? What are his 
capacities, acquirements, and resources? with very little concern 
for the standing and qualities of those from whom he descended. 

But a suitable notice and regard of the fathers who trod their 
way before us, is both patriotic and commendable. 

Mr. Bancroft, in his history of the town of Northampton, Massa- 
chusetts, and speaking of its early settlers, mentions the Pomeroy 
family, from whom the subject of this sketch descended, aa fol- 
lows : — 

" The Pomeroys trace descent from Ralph de Pomeroy, a favor- 
ite knight of William of Normandy — called the Conqueror — whom 
he accompanied to England, and acted a conspicuous part in the 
conquest. After which William granted him fifty-seven townships 
or manors, in Devonshire, and several in Somersetshire. In Dev- 
onshire, Sir Ralph built a castle, and founded an estate called 
' Bery Pomeroy,' after the seat he had left in Normandy, and by 
which name it is now known. 

" The castle is still a noble view, is visited by antiquarians and 
tourists with great interest, and is considered one of the most 
ancient structures in the kingdom. It is in tolerable preservation, 
and still possessed by a descendant of Sir Ralph. 

" The first emigration of the family out of England was in the 
4a7 



2 SAMUEL C. POMEBOY. 

reign of Queen Elizabeth, when Arthur Pomeroy accompanied the 
Earl of Essex, Lord Lieutenant, as his chaplain to Ireland, and re- 
mained in that kingdom. From this branch of the family in Ire- 
land, have sprung, which was ennobled in 1783 by the creation of 
Arlhur Pomeroy, a descendant of the first Arthur, as Baron, by the 
title of Lord Ilurltertson,' of Castle Oarbury, and subsequently a 
viscoimt. 

" Arthur died, and was succeeded in estate and title by his 
brother, Major-General Pomeroy, who served in the British army, 
and in America during the Kevolutionary war. 

•' The branch of the family from which all the Pomeroys of the 
United States descended, emigrated from Devonshire about the 
year 1735, and consisted of two brothers, Eltweed and Eldad. They 
are represented as men of liberal and independent merits, deter- 
mined to preserve civil and religious freedom, and disgusted with 
the tyranny of the Stuarts and Archbishop Laud. They settled 
in Dorchester, near Boston, Massachusetts. These brothers after- 
wards, about 1738, removed to Windsor, on the Connecticut River. 
The records of the colony contain grants of land in that State to 
Eltweed and Eldad Pomeroy. 

" According to tradition, the domains of Normandy produced 
an apple of which the king was fond, and were thereafter called 
Pomeroy, or king-apple. As the surname in those days was taken 
from the estates they occupied, it gave name to the family of Pom- 
eroys, which God preserved, and enabled them to retain the charac- 
teristics of the original stock — true courage, and an unequalled 
spirit of perseverance and ardent attachment to civil and religious 
liberty, and the best feelings of our nature." 

The Pomeroy coat of arms — A lion sitting, holding an apple in 
his paw ; with motto : 

" Virtutis fortuna comes." 
(Fortune is the companion of valor.) 

From this extract of Bancroft's history, it appears that a son 

488 



1' O M E R o y . 



of Eltweed Pomeroy settled in JSToi-tbampton, Mass. And Samuel 
C. Pomeroy, the subject of this sketch, was bom in Southamptou, 
Mass., January 3d, 1816, and was the son of Samnel, who was the 
son of Elijah, the son of Caleb, the son of Samuel, the son of Caleb, 
who was the son of Eltweed. 

Mr. Pomeroy spent his boyhood and early life upon his father's 
farm, which was a hard and profitless one, in the north part of the 
town, and almost under the shadows of those well-known moun- 
tains, Tom and Holyoke, He enjoyed the advantages of the com- 
mon schools of his native town until he acquired the several 
branches usually taught therein. Being anxious, however, to 
advance still farther, he prepared to enter college by attending the 
Sheldon Academy of Southampton, the Fellenberg School, in 
Greenfield, and the Academy at Shclburn Falls, in Massachusetts, 
during which time he supported himself by teaching school some 
portion of each year. In 1836, he entered Amherst College, and 
at the end of two years went to reside with a brother-in-law in 
Onondago county, New York, and there he measurably recovered 
from an injury he had caused to his eyesight. In that county he 
taught school, and afterward engaged in mercantile business, and 
also in South Butler, Wayne county, N". Y. Here he cast his first 
vote, and engaged, in 1838, in the first canvass, and aided to 
make Hon, William H. Seward Governor of the State of New 
York. 

But during the ever memorable campaign of 1840, Mr. Pomeroy 
although a Whig, became deeply interested in the principles of the 
" Liberty Party," so called, and often attended and participated 
in those exciting conventions, held by that remarkable man, Alvan 
Stewart, of Utica, N. Y., and deeply impressed with his earnest- 
ness and eloquence, finally espoused the Anti-slavery cause. In 
1842, when the advancing years of his parents appealed to him for 
succor and support, he removed to his native town in Massachusetts, 
and there at once organized the Liberty Party. In this work he 
enlisted all over whom he had any influence. He lectured in 
489 



4- S A M U E I, C . P O M E U Y . 

school-houses, held public discussions, met objections, softened 
down prejudices, and lived down obloquy. Thus year by year he 
labored on, and was often the defeated candidate for the Legisla- 
ture, and sometimes for town and coimty offices; until in 1851, 
after eight years of unremitting effort ho triumphed over both 
"Whig and Democratic parties. So that in the winter of 1852 ho 
is found in the Legislature of his native State, and gave work and 
vote to lion. Henry Wilson, for his first seat in the Senate of the 
United States. As he had the previous year supported the Hon. 
Charles Sumner for the same position, as well also as aiding in 
the Legislature to elect Hon. George S. Boutwell to be Governor, 
and Hon. N. P. Banks to be Speaker of the House of Eepresenta- 
tives. In later years, his association and connection with these 
same gentlemen has been cordial and efficient for the union of the 
States and for the freedom and elevation of a race. 

It was during that session of the Legislature that the Eev. Dr. 
Beeehcr headed and presented the largest petition ever presented to 
a Legislature, asking for the passage of what is known as the 
" Mahie Law." 

Mr. Pomeroy was on the Committee which received the me- 
morial, and he voted for, and urged the passage of that law. 

lie also addressed the Legislatm-e with earnestness and cffiart 
against the rendition of Fugitive Slaves, and in favor of Emancipa- 
tian, with a restoration to citizenship of all persons of African 
descent, not only, but also for their right to all the civil and politi- 
cal privileges of American freemen. Mr. Pomeroy was much inter- 
ested in the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Bill, and especially in 
the amendment which repealed the " Missom-i Compromise," so 
called, and opened all the public domain to slavery. And being in 
Washington at the time, he called on the President, Franklin 
Pierce, at the date of his signing the Act, and assured him that 
the triumph of the slave power in Congress was not conclusive on 
that question of slavery extension; that the contest should be 
carried to the Territory, and met there. At the same time telling 
490 



SAMUEL C. POMEROY. 5 

him, that his own purpose to emigrate there, was to strike a hloiv 
at slavery. 

Mr. Pomeroy could now go, as his duties to his aged parents 
were all discharged. For in the early spring time of that year they 
both had been called to their final rest, and were buried with their 
fathers. 

At this period the cold heart of the north began to be fired. And 
"emigration to Kansas" was upon very many lips. Hon. Eli 
Thayer had obtained a Charter from* the Legislature of Massachus- 
etts, for the " New England Emigrant Aid Company." And Mr. 
Pomeroy was soon chosen as its general and financial agent. 

Ml*. Thayer was aided by such men as Amos A. Lawrence, J. M. 
S. Williams, E. P. "Waters, Ames Brothers, Dr. S. Cabot, etc., etc., 
in the organization of that company. Mr. Pomeroy lectured in its 
behalf, and for the cause of emigration to Kansas, until on the 
27th day of August, 1854, he started with a select party of most 
earnest men and women, from Boston, for Kansas. Additions to 
their numbers were received at several points on their way, and on 
the Gth day of October they arrived at Kansas city, on the border 
of the Territory, and after some days the whole party moved up the 
Kansas Valley, about fifty miles, and pitched their tents upon the 
site where the city of Lawrence now stands. Other parties soon 
followed from the east, and were directed into the Territory by the 
same way. 

Later in the Autumn of that year, there came Governor Reeder, 
who, with other Government officials, were welcomed to this, 
Lawrence, a " Yankee settlement," by Mr. Pomeroy, in a speech 
which has often been quotefl, as significant of the pm-pose, if not 
prophetic of results. 

Following this organized emigration came bands of desperadoes 
from Missouri and all the Southern States, and with guns, bowie- 
knives and whiskey, undertook to conquer Kansas to slavery. And 
during the disturbances and trials of 1855 and 1856, Mr. Pomeroy, 
from his known position as agent of this despised company, so 
491 



AM UK I- C. POM K ROY. 



violently bated, had to bear his full share. Beaten, arrested, im- 
prisoned, and threatened with death, he still escaped all, to com- 
plete the work yet reraaiuinjij for him to do. He was often at 
Washington, pleading with those who administered the Govern- 
ment, for the protection and interests of the people of Kansas. Mr. 
Pomcroy was a member of the Convention at Philadelphia, in 1856, 
which nominated General Fremont, and of the Republican Conven- 
tion in Chicago, in 18G0, which nominated Mr. Lincoln. He 
lectured in the Free States, and before the State Legislatures, for the 
Free State canso in Kansas, raising means, sending supplies, 
marching men, and taking military stores through Iowa and 
Nebraska to Kansas, when the Missouri river was closed to them, 
until at last, in 1857, peace, victory and freedom, dawned npon the 
Free State men of Kansas. 

The political career of Mr. Pomeroy became more marked and 
prominent upon the advent of the " Lecompton Constitution," so 
called, which was an effort to force slavery upon Kansas whether 
they voted the Constitution up or down. 

Against this swindle he foxight day and night, denouncing it 
in Kansas, and by written appeals and public lectures through the 
Northern States, until the Congress of 1858 gave it a death blow. 
At this period Mr. Pomeroy had moved from Lawrence to Atchison, 
in Kansas, and upon the retiring of the pro-slavery party, which 
had held sway there, he bought a large share of the towa, and took 
possession of the same. He purchased also the " Squatter Sover- 
eign," a noted pro-slavery paper, controlled by the celebrated 
Stringfellow, and ran up a free State flag ; and that paper ever 
afterwards did good service in the free State cause not only, but 
also for the cause of liberty, emancipation, and enfranchisement. 

Mr. Pomeroy was the first mayor of Atchison, and was twice 
chosen. He entered heartily into the plan for tree schools there, 
and built a church edifice of his own means and deeded it to the 
Congrogationalists. He engaged in the relief of the sufferers of 
1860 from tho terrible drouth of that yuar, and was chosen chair- 
•1!)2 



SAMUEL C. POMEBOY. 7 

man of the State Relief Committee, and received and distributed 
sup])lic3 for the entire winter of 1861. At the close of these most 
efficient labors, and Kansas being admitted into the Union, Mr. 
Pomeroy met an approving verdict from the people of Kansas by 
his election to the Senate of the United States. 

His colleague, the Hon. James H. Lane, deceased, was chosen at 
the same time. Mr. Pomeroy drew the long term of six years, and 
was again re-elected in 1807 for a term expiring in 1873. 

The expectations entertained of him have not been disappointed 
by his course in the Senate. He had his full share in all tlie legis- 
lation of the eventful years of the war and those (no less difficult) 
bearing upon the restoration of the States, and in securing by a 
fundamental law the equality of all citizens of the Republic. 

He sustained Mr. Lincoln in his proclamation of Emancipation 
and in urging it ; even went so far as to agree to establish a 
colony in the tropics if the proclamation could at once follow. 
But events then unforeseen pressed upon Mr. Lincoln, and he 
issued his proclamation, and to the great relief of Mr. Pomeroy 
abandoned his scheme of colonization. 

In the Senate, Mr. Pomeroy has done service on the Committees 
on " Public Lands," " Claims," " Post-offices and Post Roads," 
" Pacific Railroads," &c., &c., and for many years was chairman of 
the Public Land Committee. 

His first bill, introduced soon after taking his seat, at the called 
session of Congress in July, 1801, may be learned by its significant 
title : " A BUI to Suppress the SlaveMd^rs' Behellion:' 

The term. Slaveholders' Rebellion, is believed to have been ori- 
ginal with him, as we do not know of its use prior to that date. 
He also took an active part in the passage of the " Homestead 
Law," coming as it did from his own Committee, as well as the 
Pacific Railroad Act, which was referred to a special committee, of 
which Mr. Pomeroy was a member. 

But his strongest and best efforts have been put forth upon those 
questions which have been the lifework of a man now past fifty 
493 



8 SAMUEL C. POMEROT 

years of ago. Upon the 5tli day of March, toward tho close of a 
long debate in the Senate, Mr. Pomeroy advocated universal and 
impartial suff.-ago for all the citizens of the Eepublic, as the follow- 
ing extract from his published speech will sliow. He said : " Let 
us not take counsel of our fears, but of our hopes ; not our ene- 
mies, but of oar friends ; by all the memories which cluster about tho 
pathway in which we have been led ; by all tho sacrifices of blood 
and tears of the conflict ; by all the hopes of a freed country, and a 
disenthralled race, yea, as a legacy to mankind, let us now secure 
a free representative Republic, based upon impartial suffrage, and 
that human equality made clear in the Declaration of Independ- 
ence! To this entertainment let us invito our countrymen of all 
nationalities, committing our work, when accomplished, to the ver- 
dict of posterity and the blessing of Almighty God." 

Out of the Senate and during tho recess Mr. Pomeroy spends 
much of his time upon his farm at Muscotah, Kansas, where, as he 
has the means, he indulges his fondness for domestic animals of the 
best bloods. 

At the close of his present term, Mr. Pomeroy has signified to his 
friends that he shall retire from the Senate, as he will have seen 
accomplished during his twelve years of service all he was anxious 
for when he entered public life. 

To have taken part in tho legislation and events which have 
secured, in the fundamental law of the land, the elevation and en- 
franchisement of an oppressed race, the perpetuity of a Union of 
States where citizens of all nationalities are equal before the law, 
seems sufficient to satisty the ambition of any ordinary man, and 
with this view Mr. Pomeroy has expressed his purpose of retire- 
ment. Should Mr. Pomeroy close his political career, it is fair to pre- 
sume, that in the future as well as the past, he will continue to 
exercise a strong controlling political influence. As a politician 
he has been almost invariably successful, chiefly owing to his re- 
markable executive ability. As a public servant, from his first 
office he has always been faithful and conscientious in the discharge 
494 



SAMUEL C. POMEROT. 9 

of liis duty, and without reproach. As a citizen, he has labored 
arduously for the interests of his State. 

One of his friends has lately said of him : " True to principle, 
true to his convictions, true to his country, and terribly true to his 
country's foes, ho occupies to-day, as Senator of the United States, 
a proud position among his peers — a position that honors both the 
Representative and tlie represented. As a patriot, he is earnest ; as 
a statesman he is logical ; as a politician, consistent ; as a man, 
genial, generous, and j ust. 

495 



I 




-^ M^/^^ 



W. C. WHITTHORiTE. 

'^^ASHINGTON C. WHITTHORNE was born April 19, 1825, 
r^^ in Lincoln County, Tennessee. His father, W. J. Whit- 
■^^^ thome, was an Irishman. His mother, a native of the 
State of North Carolina. Both of his parents were remai'kable for 
gi-eat energy and industry, and were veiy poor. Their force of char- 
acter is marked in the fact that, to the eleven children they raised, 
to each they gave a good education, most of them graduating in the 
high schools of Tennessee. The subject of our present sketch gradu- 
ated at the University of East Tennessee, in August, 1843, and 
shortly thereafter commenced the study of law under James K. Polk, 
(subsequently President of the United States,) and James H. Thomas, 
(subsequently member of Congress,) at Columbia, Tennessee. When 
Mr. Polk was elected President, he gave to his young student, for 
whom he had formed a strong partiality, a clerkship at Washington. 
Mr. W. remained at Washington for nearly three years, when he 
voluntarily resigned, and returned to Tennessee. Following the ad- 
vice and 1 ounsel of his friend and preceptor, the then President, he 
determined to take a part in active life. Mr. W. returned to Ten- 
n ssee and in July, 1848, mamed his present estimable wife, to whom 
lie had been devoted for years previously. Mrs. W., formerly Miss 
M. J. Campbell, a daughter of the late Colonel Robert Campbell 
of Maury County, Tennessee, was a young lady of rare beauty and 
great personal attractions, and was a distant relative of President 
Polk. 

Shortly after his raaniage, Mr. W. commenced the practice of the 
law, at Columbia, Tennessee, and from the first was greeted with 
497 



2 W. C. WHITTHOKNE. 

fuccess. Manifesting great energy and considerable talents, and 
possessing poi)ular, courteous manners, lie was early marked by his 
party and friends as a favorite. In 1853, after two or three gentle- 
men had been selected as candidates for the lower House of the 
General Assembly of the State against the nominee of the Whig 
party, Mr. Erwin, and declined — and when the race was regarded as 
hopeless, Mr. W., without any general acquaintance in the district, 
became the party candidate, having only four weeks to canvass a 
large district, yet such was the energy, industry and tact of Mr. 
W. that though he did not quite succeed in the race yet he did 
in gi-eatly reducing the majority of the Whig party, but his success 
was greater, in that it gave him a marked and leading position in his 
party. At the next election, (being the great Know Nothing Canvass,) 
in which he was a candidate for the State Senate, and was elected by 
a very large majority. In this canvass he made the reputation of 
boing one of the first " Public Debaters " in the State. In 1857 
he was re-elected to the State Senate without opposition. In 1859 
he was nominated by his party, and against his own instructions, 
for the position in which he had been defeated in 1853 by Mr. 
Erwin. His opponent this time being W. L. McConnico, one of the 
first orators of that State, so gifted in her public men. The Dis- 
trict was Whig in politics. Mr. W. was known as a bold, uncompro- 
mising Democrat, and his position against Corporations, Rings, 
Banks, and State aid, it was believed by all except his warm personal 
friends, would ensure his defeat. This race, from the character of the 
two men, acquired a State importance. It was conducted with great 
zeal, interest and energy, particularly upon the part of Mr. W., who 
was rewarded at its close by a majority in his favor, though the 
■Whig candidate for Governor can-ied the same district. Mr. W. 
was elected Speaker of the House, and through the various sessions 
held during the term for which he was elected, (which term included 
the opening scenes and legislation of the great civil struegle,) he 
presided with marked ability and courtesy, so freely conceded, and 
498 



W. e. VVillTTHORNE. 3 

witli pride, by his political friends and foes. In 1860 he was se- 
lected by his party friends as a candidate for elector for the State 
at large, upon the Breckenridge ticket; as such he made the canvass 
of the State, from one extreme to the other, meeting more competi- 
tors than ever was done in any one political canvass by any public 
speaker. He met the expectations of his friends, and at the close of 
the canvass, few, if any, stood above him as a political debater. In 
the opinion of his friends, but for civil war he would have been the 
Democratic candidate for Governor in 1861. 

Mr. W's style of speaking is plain, forcible, earnest and vehement. 

He was an ardent friend of the South, and whilst, as he stated in 
a public speech, dehvered before the House of Representatives in the 
State, in January, 186 1, he could not yield to the idea of " Secession " 
as a constitutional remedy, yet he could not find that " coercion " 
was. Naturally, and with his whole energy, he devoted himself to 
the cause of his beloved South. 

Since the close of the war, up to the time of his election to the 
present Congress, he has labored assiduously and successfully in his 
profession, in which he took high rank as a practitioner and advocate. 
It is said that he has but few superiors before a jury. He was elected 
to the 42d Congress from the 6th Congressional District of Ten- 
nessee, by a large majority ; in which Congress he has already taken 
a prominent position, being appointed upon the select committee to 
whom was referred the President's special message upon Southern 
outrages. The only speech as yet made by him was in opposition 
to the bill reported by said committee. The speech is marked by 
great caution, prudence, as well as affection and deep interest for 
the peojile he represents, bearing evidence that he, as their represen- 
tative, desired fixithfully to represent them, and at the same time 
by no imprudent word to prejudice their cause. We close our sketch 
by reproducing an article from the Columbia Herald, a newspaper 
published at the residence of Mr. W. at the time he became a candi- 
date for Congress. 

499 



4 W. C. WIIITTHORNE. 

" Tliis gentleman announces himself through our papers to-day as 
a canilidato for Congress. The intelligence will bo gratifying to an 
unusually large circle of admiring friends, not only in this immediate 
Congressional district, but throughout the State. Gen. W. has 
now been connected with the public service and regarded in the hght 
of a public man for fifteen years, passing through the changes and 
vicissitudes of parties, and of all the conflicts and asperities incident to 
an internecine war, accomplisliing what but few have done, viz: made 
himself more and more the champion and favorite of the people. 
This Is the result of a combination of qualities seldom uniting in one 
character — talent and tact, boldness without rashness, earnestness 
without illiberaUty, strict adherence to duty, and all backed by an 
untiring energy. Such a man can not fail to be useful to the country, 
whether found in office or following the more quiet pursuits of 
jjrivate life. 

As a member of both houses of the legislature prior to the war, 
Gen. Whitthorne displayed a ready comprehension of the varied 
interests of the country and the rights of the people, coupled with 
an executive ability, that placed him at once high in the regard of 
all intelligent and critical observers. As Speaker of the House he 
acquitted himself in a manner that but few have equaled who have 
occupied the same difficult position. 

In no position, however, has Gen. Whitthorne evidenced so mucli 
executive ability as during the brief time at the beginning of our 
recent revolutionary troubles, when engaged as Assistant Adjutant 
General under Governor Harris, in organiz ing the Provisional Army 
of Tennessee. The rapidity and facility with which an army ol 
25,000 men were enrolled, officered and placed upon a war footing, 
was without a parallel in the Confederate States. In this work. 
Gen. W. performed an important part. When that army was ready 
for active duty, and was turned over to the Confederate authorities. 
Gen. W. accompanied the brigade placed under Gen. Anderson to 
Western Vir>;inia, and acted for a time as his Adjutant. He was 
500 



W. C. WniTTIIORMR. 5 

called horae in a few months by a succession of tlie severest domestic 
afflictions. At this time Gen. Johnson, who stood guarding the 
Northern and Eastern line of our State, was earnestly appealing for 
reinforcements, and by no one was the call so sensibly felt as by our 
then able and patriotic governor. Again Gen, Whitthorne went to 
his assistance, and in less than three months fourteen additional 
infantry regiments, three cavaky battalions, and three artillery com- 
panies, were organized, equipped, and put in the field. After the 
fall of Fort Donaldson and the abandonment of Middle Teim. by the 
Confederate forces, the work of recruiting and organizing troops was 
continued under Gen. W. at Memphis, until after the battle of 
Shiloh. Plans were subsequently put on foot at Chatanooga for 
the organization of mounted rangers, looking to special service in 
Tennessee. The early advance of Gen. Bragg into Kentucky, and 
other changes that were made, put an end to this, when Gen. W. 
attached himself to the staff of Gen. Hardee. • After reaching 
MumfordsviEe, however, it again became his duty to return to Ten- 
nessee with the view of increasing our forces, and about this time 
engaged with Gen. Forrest in his attack on Nashville. When the 
battle of Murfreesboro came on he bore a gallant and an active part 
in it as a member of the staif of Gen. Hardee. He remained with the 
army and continued in that position until some change took Gen. 
Hardee temporarily from that field of duty, when he was invited to 
a position in the military family of Gen. Wright, with whom he 
served gallantly in the memorable and bloody battle of Chicamauga. 
When Gen. Wright was sent to post duty by reason of his health, 
Gen. Whitthorne attached himself to the staff of the gallant Gen. 
Carter, who was afterwards mortally wounded at Franklin, and 
whose honored remains are entonabed in our beautiful cemetery. 
Upon the last advance of the Confederate forces into Tennessee, our 
recollection is that Gen. W. was on duty with Gen. Cheatham. 

In the varied relations which he occupied during the war, all who 
knew him — and there are but few of the Tennessee troops who did 
501 



6 SV. C. WHITTHOIINE. 

„ot — hoiKn-od him for liis gallantry, patriotism and ability. He was 
regarded with special favor by the officers of rank with whom he 
chanced to serve. Without any extravagant eulogium, this much 
may well be said. The fortunes of war do not affect the meed of 
praise due to each patriot and citizen-soldier who, following judg- 
ment and conscience, made, in that trying hour, a full discharge of 
duty to his country. 

The present is a period of peculiar interest with the States recently 
in rebellion, in their relations to the Federal Government. What- 
ever may be the dissatisfied feeling engendered by the prescriptive 
and illiberal policy pursued towards us, we are no less integral part 
of the same government, alike interested in its peaceful and prosper- 
ous administration. The South and those sympathizing with her, 
are, for the present, sadly in the minority. With intelligent and 
prudent counsel on the part of our representative men she is not 
nicely to remain so long. The true interest of the great body of the 
American people are in harmony with our interests. What we need 
at Washington now is, truly representative men. We have had 
but few, if any such, from the South since the war. Where can be 
found one better answering the demand of the times than in the 
person of Gen. Whitthorne ? Able, experienced, self-possessed, in 
full accord with his people, and never forsaking their iulcicste from 
any imaginary self-advantage, his election might be justly hailed as 
an omen of good results, not only for his immediate constituents, 
or the State, but for the entire South. And such, we believe, is the 
common sentiment of all who know him. 
602 



HON. JOHN LYNCH 

limj ^^ ^ member of the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth and Fortj- 
^M^ first Congresses. Previous to his election to the TJ. S. 
C^^ Congress, he was a member of the Legislature of his native 
State in the years 1861 and 1863. 
He was born at Portland, Maine, February 25th, 1825. At the 
early age of seven years he was left an orphan, and placed in care 
of a gentleman who soon employed him in his grocery store. He 
received an elementary education in the public schools of his native 
city, and afterwards graduated with much honor at the Latin High 
School, at the age of seventeen. After serving an apprenticesliip in 
the mercantile business with his employer, in 1848 he established a 
mercantile house for himself, and has actively and successfully pros- 
ecuted his profession imtil the present time. 

From his early boyhood he has been a decided lover of freedom, 
and on becoming a voter identified himself with the Abolition 
party. 

At the formation of the Republican party, he became a member, 
and during the Fremont campaign, in 1856, took an active part 
in political affairs, both as a speaker and writer. 

He represented his native city in the Maine Legislature in 1861 
and 1863, and served on Committees of Finance, Mercantile Affaire 
and Coast Defence. 

In 1862 he was appointed by the Secretary of War, Commandant 
of Camp Lincoln, and raised and organized three regiments of 
volunteers for the army. In 1864 he received the unanimous nomi- 
nation of the RepubHcan party for his district, then represented by 
a Democrat, and was elected by 2,500 majority a member of the 
Thirty-ninth Congress. He has been re-elected to the Fortieth, 
Foi'ty-first and Forty-seconQ Congresses. 
503 



3 HON. JOHN LYNOn. 

In the Tliirly-ninth Oougress, he served on the Committee on 
Banking and Currency, and on Special Committee on the Bank- 
rupt Law. He was an earnest advocate of specie payments, and 
introduced tlie only bill for that purpose submitted to that Congress. 

March lOtli, 1806, Mr. Lynch made a speech on the "Loan Bill," 
opposing the policy of Secretary McCulloch, in contracting the cur- 
rency, and keeping up taxes for immediate reduction of the public 
debt. On this occasion, Mr. Lynch said : 

" Because it took Great Britain many years to return to specie 
payments after an exhausting war, the theory has been accepted al- 
most without question that we cannot do otherwise. Sir, the expe- 
riences of the country for the last five years have exploded many 
fiilse theories and falsified many sanguine pi-edictions. It was posi- 
tively asserted by our foreign foes, that the South could not be con- 
quered ; that it never yet had been that a fi-ee people, of the num- 
bers, resources, and territory of the southern people, were defeated 
and compelled to submit to the will of a conqueror ; tliat we could 
not raise armies suificient for the work ; that wo had no money of 
our own, and could borrow none in Europe ; that the armies, even 
if raised, would, upon a return to civil life, so disorganize society, 
that government would bo upheaved, and civil order destroyed. 

" Well, sir, we have seen the result of all these predictions. "We 
have astonished the civilized world by setting at naught the most 
profound theories of these modern sages ; we have overturned the 
accepted notions and ideas of past centuries, and in their stead we 
have hewn out our own destiny in our own way, until we stand on 
ground where we may safely bid defiance to the assaults of the com- 
bined physical and moral powers of Europe. 

" In view of these facts, so grandly and imperishably carved in our 
history, why should we follow the ideas of Europe in regard to om- 
financial, any more than we did in regard to our military adminis- 
tration ? Because the London Times raises the cry, and our own 
croakers echo it, that ' we must have a financial crisis,' in passing 
from a paper to a specie circulation, is it necessary for us to precip- 
OU-i 



JOHN LYNCH. 



itate one upon the country, in order to verify tlie i)redictions of 
these prophets of evil ? 

"England said, you cannot carry on a war without a European 
loan, and that you cannot get. ShaU we now say that we cannot 
return to specie payments because England, under circumstances of 
an entirely different character, did not do so for many years after a 
return of peace ? Such a reason, it seems to me, is not worthy the 
name of an argument. The laws of trade and the restoration of 
confidence are bringing us steadily and surely to a resumption of 
specie payments. 

"Every day's experience goes to prove that our tnie financial pol- 
icy is to go on and provide for the maturing obligations of the Gov- 
ernment, without contracting or disturbing the currencv of the 
country, which is the life-blood of its commerce. Let it alone and 
It will flow where it is wanted, and find ample field for employment " 
Mr. Lynch was among the first to advocate the impeachment of 
Andrew Johnson for high ofiieial misdemeanor, and when the 
measure finally passed, on the 24th of February, 1868, he made an 
able speech on tlie resolution, and styled it "one of the hi-liest 
prerogatives of the House." We extract the following paragniph 
ot the speech : 

"Here is a President of the United States deliberating upon 
what ? How far is he required to go in opposing an act of Congress 
winch he may deem unconstitutional ? He is contemplating execu- 
tive resistance to an enactment passed in constitutional form by the 
supreme legislative authority, and regularly enrolled among the pub- 
lic statutes. Such resistance as would lead to violent colHsion and 
produce civil war. He is studying the limit of concession beyond 
^v],.ch he may proceed to endanger the public peace. He is consid- 
ering cases where he must resort to forcible measures, or measures 
which lead to force, regardless of all consequences. These are his 
forms of expression, his very phrases. And they indicate, not that 
he IS meditating a resort to the adjudication of the courts, an appeal 
to the judicial tribunals, or any lawful arbitrament und.n- the Co.i- 
505 



HON. JOHN I, Y N (1 11 , 



stitution ; but thiit l\is tlu>i),u;lit3 dwell on ivvoliitiouary mei\8UTO8 of 
violent collision luul civil war. llii:^ any previous Presidont of the 
Uriited States furnished any pi-ocedont for tlio use of such language 
in his message to Congress ? Not ono. This extraordinary and 
revolutionary language, addressed hy an oxocntivo officer to the peo- 
ple's lu>i>resentatives, has no parallel in the annals of our country 
Its counterpart is only to bo found in the proclamations of usurpei-s 
of the liberties of the people. In the light of these and other pri*- 
vious declarations of the dark workings of the Pi-esidcut's mind, it is 
ciuiy to see that his attenuated removal of Secretary Stanton from the 
AVar Department was a iii-st step in opposition to an act of Congress. 
His etlbrts to induce the General of the Army to retain or surrender 
tho office of Secix>taiy of War, ad intcrm, ' in the intei-est of the 
Tivsident,' against the authority of the Senate, was a piece of exec- 
utive resistance, likely to produce violent collision and civil war. 
llis appointment of Adjutant tk>neral Thomas to the office of Secre- 
tary of "War tuf iiit<'n'in, the same not then being vacant, but lawful- 
ly tilled, was a forcible measure, or one leading to force. .Vets like 
tliese, following, as they diil, ]nvvious declanitious, showing such 
ivvolutionary «ud usurping intent, cannot be attributed to tho mo- 
tive of a mere honest opinion. They are not consistent with the 
chai-acter of a loyal and law-abiding officer.'' 

He also introduced and advo«ited a bill, which passed, prohibit- 
ing the ivturn and registry of those American vessels tliat had de- 
serted the " tlag of our ITnion" during the ivbellion, and placed 
themselves under foivign pow ers. 

In advocating this lueasuiw ^[r. Lynch s;iid : 

'' The question arises, whether it is right to allow vessels to come 
back in this way by an evasion of the spirit of the laws; whether it 
is iust to those owners of vessels who have refused to desert the Hag 
of their country in her hour of peril. It is a cowardly argument to 
oiler in behalf of these shi{v^nvnei-s to sjiy the country could not pro- 
tect them. On the same principle, the whole population might 
leave with their propertv, :ind place themselves under foiviijn piw 

cm 



tectiou. It is for the people to protect tlie country in time of war. , 
They are a part of the country, and ought not to desert her in time 
of danger. It would certainly be a dangerous policy for a nation to 
offer inducements for its citizens to desert with their property, and 
identity their interests with its enemies, in time of war." 

In 1SG9 and 1S70, Mr. Lynch introduced bills for the resumption 
of specie payments and the revival of American commerce, and 
made able speeches advocating these measures before the House. 
The bill for resumption of specie payments was reported by Commit- 
tee on Banking and Currency, but failed to secure a majority. In 
comraoncing and closing an oifectivo speech on specie payment, Mr. 
Lynch said: 

" Mr. Speakkk : Among all the conflicting theories in regard to 
financial affairs, and the means to be adopted for their improvement, 
there is a very general agreement upon one point, namely, that it is 
desirable at the earliest day practicable to place our currency upon 
a specie basis. I know there is a class of financiei-s that contend 
that a specie standard is wholly unnecessary, and that a paper ciu- 
rency, based upon the liiith of the Government, is a better currency 
than gold and silver, or paper convertible into gold and silver. But 
this class is not numerous, and I will not stop to discuss the abstract 
question which they raise. Whetlier they are right or wrong is of 
little practical moment in dealing with the question to-day. It is 
enough to know that the specie standard is the standard of every 
civilized nation, and as one of the fomilies of nations, our interest is 
to conform to that standard. I shall therefore assume, in discussing 
this question, that we are ultiinately to return to specie payments ; 
to base our currency on that which the world recognizes, and has 
adopted as the true standard of value, gold and silver. 

" There is no royal road to the payment of our debt ; and those 
who pretend that we can carry the burdens imposed upon us by the 
contest for national existence through which we have successfully 
passed, without inconvenience and labor, do but flatter and delude. 
It must cost us something to return to specie pavmcnts. But I be- 
507 



6 nON. .TOnNLTNOH. 

lievc tliat, by adopting careful and wise measures, the task we have 
to perform will be so toned and proportioned to our gradually in- 
creasino- sti-ength, tliat it will be accomplished naturally and easily, 
and will be in itself a means of national development, and financial 
health and strength. The chasm between our cuirency and specie 
must be bridged ; it cannot be leaped. We must, first, promise to 
resume ; second, show that we are able to perform our promise ; and 
third, arrange so that the transition from paper to gold, from an ir- 
redeemable to a redeemable currency, shall be gentle and gradual, 
and thus avoid any sudden revulsion and consequent panic. This 
done, we shall have fixed our currency on a firm and enduring basis, 
and brought our public debt into normal and healthy relations with 
the trade and commerce of the country." 

In the Fortieth Congress, the House having resumed the consid- 
eration of the bill to increase ban Icing facilities, and also the bill to 
promote Ameiican commerce, Mr. Lynch made able speeches con- 
taining much valuable data and information. 

In this Congress he served on Committee on Banking and Cur- 
rency, Pacific Eailroad, Chairman on Committee on Naval Ex- 
penditures, and was also made Chairman on Special Committee to 
investigate and report upon the causes of the decline of American 
commerce. This Committee held sessions during the recess of Con- 
gress in the principal commercial cities of the country, taking the 
testimony of merchants and others interested in shipping ; collect- 
ing valuable statistics, and making a thorough investigation of the 
subject submitted to them. The results of their labors were em- 
bodied in an exhaustive report, and submitted to Congress, with 
bills for the revival of American commerce. This report was pub- 
lished in the " Loudon Times," and commented upon by EngUsh 
and Continental papers. The President commended it to the atten- 
tion of Congress liy a special message. The bills were advocated 
in an elaborate speech, but were defeated by a combination of free 
traders and ultra protectionists — the one opposing because of the 
protection afforded to the shipping interest, and the other because 
508 



HON. JOHN LYNCH. 7 

material for ship building was to be admitted free of duty. Mr. 
Lynch has been long connected with the public improvements 
of his State, and is at the present time President of the Portland 
and Eocliestei- Eailroad 

509 



I 




^; ^/ ^ X . ^^^. 



LIONEL ALLEN SHLLDON. 

^'^ MOJSfGr the people who, amid the wilds of the Ne^v 
World, sought "Freedom to worship God," came the 
ancestors of Lionel Allen Sheldon, who, emigrating from 
England about the middle of the seventeenth century, settled first 
in Massachusetts. But long ere " God's first temples " had yielded 
to the axe of the settler, " macadamized bigotry characterized the 
church government of the Puritans, and one branch of the family 
having chosen Eoger Williams as their expounder of theology, 
were obliged to follow him in his exile into Ehode Island. This 
State, however, was again only ,a temporary resting-place for the 
tamily, since early in life General Sheldon's grandfather moved to 
Rensselaer County, New York, at whichplace his father was born. 

However, since " children are what their mothers are," it be- 
hooves us to inquire what blood mingle! with that of the Sheldons 
in the creation of the subject of this sketch. 

Gen. Sheldon's maternal grandfather was a Frenchman, who, at 
the time of the American revolution, was living in Halifax, en- 
gaged in mercantile pursuits. Although bound by ties of consan- 
gTiinity and marriage with leading Tory families, he sacrificed posi- 
tion, property and friends in his devotion to republican institutions 
and, casting his lot with the colonists, shared with them, as did 
many others of his nation, the privations of the eight years' war. 
When peace was declared, he settled at Kinderhook, New York, 
where was born to him a daughter, who became the mother of 
Lionel Allen Sheldon, August 30th, 1831, 

At the time of Lionel's birth his father, with his uncle, Lionel 
511 



2 LION EI. A LI. EN SU KLDON. 

SlieKloii. were engiiircd in the nmnnfactnre of woolen goods, at 
Worcester. Otsego County, New York, but in '34 the femily moved 
to Lii Grange, Lorain County, Ohio, where, as was the common lot 
of pionoei-s, the very necessaries of life were the reward only of 
unremitted toil. The very youngest hands had their allotted task ; 
and, until he was sixteen, young Sheldon's education was obtained 
at the district school in the winter, while through the long summer 
days he toiled in the field. 

At seventeen the problem of life presented itself to his mind, 
and, gaining a reluct^xnt consent from his parent*!, Lionel Sheldon' 
commenced his career at the very lowest round of the ladder, serv- 
ing for six montlis j\s a farm laborer, for the paltry pittance of 
eight dollars a month. From that time until he was twenty his 
laboi-s as teacher during the winter sufficed to pay the expenses of 
student life at Oberlin College during the summer; and in 1S53 we 
find our quondam farmer's boy established in his own law office, in 
Elyria, Ohio, having been fitted for his profession at the Law School 
in Poughkeepsie, N. T. 

It is with pleasure we chronicle the successes of a man who has 
won position and wealth by patient industry. Gen. Sheldon's prac- 
tice in Elyria soon became extensive, as it was lucrative, and, with 
the exception of serving one term as judge of Probate in Loi-ain 
County, the duties of his profession absorbed most of his attention 
until the commencement of the war. 

The political creed bequeathed by the Sheldons, from father to 
son, was purely Democratic, and Gen. Sheldon's maiden vote was 
cast for Franklin Pierce as President. Becoming, however, strongly 
imbued with the anti-slavery spirit of Oberlin and Ponghkcepsie, 
we find Sheldon a prominent member of the new born Republican 
party in 1854. It is an historical fact, that great moral enterprises 
have alw.iys been c;vrried on by moi-al oscillations, and it is not 
strange that the first i-e-action in a truth-searching soul should be 
from rank Democracy to rampant Republicuiism ; and we are not 
surprised to see Gen. Sheldon a member of the Philadelphia Con- 
oid 



L I N K r. A L L K X S II E L D O N . -i 

vention in '56, and know that be warmly supported the nomhiation 
of John C. Fremont. 

Gov. Chase appointed Slieldon Brig-Gen. of the Ohio Militia, in 
which position, the call for three mouths' volunteers in 1801, found 
him. Gen. Sheldon's strong political ties made him an enthusiastic 
recruiter in the cause of the Union, and in August, 1861, he set the 
example to his soldiers by enUsting for thi-ee years. He was first 
chosen Captain of a company in the 2d Ohio Cavalry, but pi'efer 
ring infantry service, was at his own request transferred to the 42d 
Ohio Infantry, with the ratik of Lieutenant-Colonel. Succeeding 
Gen. James A. Garfield as Colonel, he distinguished himself in the 
command of a brigade, iu the battles of Chiekiisaw Bayou, Arkansas 
Post, and Port Gibson. After the siege of Vicksburg, he was 
created Brevet Brig.-General, for gallant and meritorious conduct. 

The war over, and the sword so gallantly used restored to the 
scabbard, Gen. Sheldon settled in New Orleans, resumed the prac- 
tice of his profession, where his characteristic zeal and industry 
won for him a prominent position at the bar. Until the enactment 
of the reconstruction acts, Gen. Sheldon took no prominent part in 
politics. Rejoicing in the origination of these acts as a possible 
means of rehabilitating the South, these laws received his cordial 
support, although his course was not that of the ]5artisan, who 
would attain his own end, regardless of friend or foe. 

In the fall of '68, Gen, Sheldon received the nomination of the 
Republicans of the 2d District of Louisiana, over ex- Governor 
Hahn, The contest was spirited, and the campaign conducted with 
all the vim which characterized the struggles preceding the war. 
It required no little tact to win and keep the regard of Southern 
Republicans, and that Gen. Sheldon was so gifted is proved by the 
fact of his re-election, with scarcely any opposition. This triumph 
was the more signal, since the 2d Congi'e.ssional district of Louisiana 
is composed of the Upper or American portion of New Orleans, 
and the six adjacent parishes, whose inhabitants are the wealthiest 
as well as the most intelligent citizens of the State. 
513 



♦ 1. 1 () N E I. A I. I, E N S 11 i: L n O N . 

Gen Sheldon's personal relations even with his political opponents 
wore of the most ])loasing chai'iieter. Frank in the expression of 
his opinion, his influence was ever on the side of peace. It is no 
part of his iiolitical faith that his opponents were necessarily wicked. 
Ilis aim has ever been to jiromote the best interest of the land of 
his adoption, and, according to his own standard of right, he ]n-os- 
ecuted his purpose. 

Of his Congressional career " Well done,''' may be written. Al- 
ways at his post bearing the interests of his constituents on his heart, 
he labored in the House for thirteen months, giving particular atten- 
tion to those measures which tend to promote the material develop- 
ment of the South, and especially to the improvement of the great 
commercial highway of the Mississippi Valley. Ho has shown a 
thorough appreciation of the needs of the country, and has not been 
void of resource to meet the emergency'. In a speech on the " Elver 
and Harbor Appropriation Bill," he said : 

" It must be remembered that commerce so largel}' supplied by 
production and consumption in the interior States, must find means 
of transportation. At the present time over six railway lines, the 
channel of tho lakes and Erie Canal, which is closed five months of 
the year, or by the channel of the Mississippi River and the sea, 
which is always open. 

"It must be remembered, too, that forty million active people 
demand an amount of passenger transportation impossible to esti- 
mate. It would not be surprising if the existing thoroughfares 
should become over-burdened with the volume of human and 
material freight ; if producer and eonsumei's soon suflPcr from ex- 
orbitant chai-ges exacted by monopolizing railroad corporations. 
A little study of t)ie physical conformation of the country will 
show us that relief from high rates cannot be derived from the 
construction of overland thoroughfares.'" And again : " The cereal- 
producing States canpot, as a i-ule, rely upon European nations for a 
market. After supplying tho East, the people of the North-west 
must look to the South, in and beyond our own country. Trade 
514 



with the West Indies, Mexico, and the northern states of South 
America, should be cultivated and developed. These countries will 
consume our surplus wheat, corn, and grain, sending us in return 
luxuries and necessaries of life, and the gold and silver, which is 
the produce of tlieir mines." 

Heart and soul Gen. Sheldon has labored to eiicoiu-age renewed 
attention to the culture of sugar, and to the advancement of every 
species of industry in the South. In a speech on Finance and 
Tariff, after sliowing that the Southern people had been too exclu- 
sively agricultural in their pursuits, and that poverty was the certain 
consequence, whenever any people purchased more than they pro- 
duced, he said : 

" By these facts it is shown that whenever any portion of the 
country is not producing enough to meet the expenditures of trade, 
the tendency is towards insolvency, while that portion which payl 
for its imports with its own productions is improving in its financial 
condition. The depletion of national wealth, like disease, attacks 
the weakest parts. 

" Cotton was the principal export of the Southern states. It was 
wholly sent away in bale or raw material to be converted into fab- 
rics elsewhere. If they had manufactured their cotton at home, and 
sent it away in fabric, its value would have been doubled. I hope 
the day is not distant when the buzzing of the gins will mingle with 
the noise of the whirling spindle ; when the cotton-presses will give 
place to the warehouses of the manufacturers ; when ships will not 
come to our ports with the iron, the steel, the cloth, and the salt of 
England to exchange for the compressed bales of the fleecy staple, 
but will bring their glowing gold to pay for the fabrics wrought by 
the industry and skill of our own people from the materials om- own 
soil has produced. That day will come to us when the watching 
world shall have become satisfied that peace and order are estaC 
lished, and poUtical disorders healed. Then, and not until then, 
will come to the South, emigration, capital, and skill." 
Gen. Sheldon believes that the government of the United State= 
515 



I. I () N K L A I, I. E N S 11 E r, D O N . 

lias ample power, and that it is the bouiiden duty of that central 
government to secure ])eace and order in all the States, and to ]m-o- 
tect the lives and pro]ierty of the meanest of its citizens. In a speech 
on the bill to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitu- 
tion of tly3 United States, lie used the following language : 

" My fear of centralization and des])Otisin is not so great as my 
apprehension of confusion and anarchy. The right to live, to 
possess property, and exercise the civil and political franchise are 
among the dearest interests of mankind; and it is the highest 
duty of the government to provide means to protect and secure 
every citizen in the undistui'bed enjoyment of these rights. The 
government of the United States was established not merely to de- 
clare the true principles of liberty, but to provide for their main- 
tenance and perpetuation. It would be gravely defective if it were 
not empowered to enforce respect for all declared rights of its citi- 
zens. 

"But while thus warmly advocating the power of a central gov- 
ernment, he has never ceased to claim the largest liberty for all the 
people, demanding general amnesty for all who claimed citizenship 
in the late Confederacy, not excepting those who actively engaged 
in the war against the Union. 

" When the war closed there were two elements of population in 
the South, whose future status was undetermined — the UacJcs who 
had never enjoyed citizenship, and the whites, who for their acts 
might be deprived of citizenship. The solution of the problem, so 
far as it enfranchised and citizenized both classes, was a wise policy. 
Whether the nation ought to have gone further and made citizens 
of all, need not now be discussed. It is clear to my mind what 
course should be pursued. Now / would grant amnesty at once. 
Good only will flow from it. Is it withheld from fear of adding 
strength to a political foe ? To deny it for such a cause would be 
ignoble. But it will not add a feather's weight to one side or the 
other. All can vote now. Disqualification at best is only a limita- 
tion in the number of men who may hold Federal offices. It has 
516 



I>LEN SHELDON. 



been urged that amnesty should be withheld because violence and 
outrages are perpetrated in the South. Disfranchisement excites 
acts of violence. This is an age and country of enfranchisement 
-ather than disfranchisement. It is morally and physically impossi- 
lie to mamtain tranquillity in any State, in any section, where any 
considerable number of the people are disfranchised. You may send 
your army to capture, and your courts to try and punish offenders 
but you had better send also the full guard of citizenship to those 
who are without it. I would use force, if necessary, to queU disor- 
ders, but I would remove every exciting cause of discontent." 

Gen. Sheldon is now in the prime of life. His physical manhood 
strong, vigorous, pure, unweakened by luxury and vice. His intellect- 
ual manhood of an exalted order, cultured and well developed. A 
pleasing and commanding person, with easy, genial manner. Such 
is Lionel Allen Sheldon, Member of Congress from the 2nd Dis- 
trict of Louisiana. The man prepared by circumstances for the 
work before him, the work onerous, indeed, waiting for the man. 
517 




-^ 



^. ^. 



irON en AS. ]'.. FAinVKI.L. 

IE fJity of Cliica^o, IllirioiH, in worM-rcunwricA i'or itH 
comrnorcial jj^rantmim and busiricHH (intcrprisc. Matliotnat:- 

^^1^ ically Hpcakinj^, we may Hay that the rnarrirnotli ^(rowtli of 
that city, tlic metropolis of the Great Went, is l<ut the 
efjnation arisiri;^ from tlic irivohitiori of comparatively few functiorm. 
lint those- functioan are mkx of the true stamp — such ah have h;«n 
<ra]lef] nature's noblemen. With no capital save that of brain, mus- 
cle, and conscience, they have built up an influential city of three 
liundrcd thousand inhabitants, where, less than forty years a;^o, 
f.licre was nothin;^ but a waste prairie. One of the mf>st prominent 
among those architects of Chic?iw> and their own fortunes, is Ifon. 
C B. Farwcll, one of the lea/ling dry goods' merchants of tliat city, 
and member of Congress from tlie county of which Chica;^o forras 
the most important portion. 

Mr. Farwell was born near Painted Post, Steuben County, New 
Vork, on the first of July, 1S23. He lived in that vicinity for about 
fifteen years, being a pupil in the Elmira Academy, New York, 
during the latter portion of that ])eriod, where he exhibitAjd a decided 
fondness for surveying. In 1838 he removed, with his father, iren- 
ry, to a farm in Ogle County, Illinois. Here he found ample oppor- 
tunity for pursuing his favorite study, and, in the intervals of farm 
labor, went out with several government parties, aiding in fixing 
the boundaries of many sections which arc now in the heart of the 
agricultural regions of the Great North-West. His health had been 
poor, in early life; he had a chronic tfjndency to rheumatism and 
bilious fever. But the course of training he received, on the farm 
and in the field, obliterated these constitutional wf-aknesscs, and 



developed a robust, hardy frame, which has ever since been capable 
of severe and prolonged exertion, without fatigue. 

Long before he had attained his majority, he was anxious for a 
wider sphere of exertion tiiau was aiibrdod " iu the country." He 
decided to go to Chicago, and arrived in that city on the 7th of 
February, 1S44, with a cash capit^il of ten dollars in his pocket. 
For four long months he sought in vain for employment, and found 
himself heiivily in debt for board, but piido forbade him to seek 
assistance from home. Then a map of Ogle County, which the 
young man had drawn, fell under the notice of George Davis, Clerk 
of Cook County, wlio was so well pleased with it that he offered 
him the position of Deputy Clerk in his office. He entered upon 
his duties on Saturday, the 1st of June. The next Monday the 
County Commissioner's Court of Cook County assembled, and Mr. 
Davis was suddenly taken ill. It became the duty of Mr. Farwell 
to open Court, to record the proceedings, and to indicate action in 
many cases — in short, to act as the Executive of the Court. Though 
entirely destitute of practice, and with not even a theoretical knowl- 
edge of the duties involved, he succeeded so well that his future 
was assured. By dint of sitting up all night to study the books, 
and the wa^'s of his principal, ho soon acquired the desired informa- 
tion, and discharged tlie duties of the office for four months, giving 
universal satisfaction, on a salary of eight dollars per month. lie 
remained in the position after the recovery of his superior, and ob- 
tained a night situation, at twenty-five cents per night, as cashier 
with Messi-s. Briggs & Green, auctioneers, at No. 174 Lake street, 
wliich involved a steady attendance from seven o'clock till twelve, 
each evening. The firm transacted a large business, and Mr. Far- 
well became acquainted, in that store, with a great many people 
from the country, who came iu to buy and sell goods. 

In November, ISiS, he took stock. He found that some eighteen 
months of hard work had enabled him to pay up liis boarding debt, 
and left a sm-plus of eiglity-tive dollars. This he concluded to in- 
vest in Chicago real estate. Ha borrowed fifteen dollars to make 
520 



F A K W E r. L 



up tlie first payment on his purchase. Prospects were not very 
bright then, and for some years afterwards there was very little ad- 
vance in values, but the rapid appreciation which followed the con- 
struction of railroads in 1852, demonstrated the wisdom of those 
who had shown their faith in tlie future of Chicago by their 
works. 

Mr. Fai-well remained in the oflSce of the County Clerk till the 
Spring of 1846, receiving two hundred dollars and board for his last 
year's service. He then entered the real estate office of Captain J. B. 
F. Russel, at a salary of four hundred dollars per year, wliich was 
increased to five hundred in the second and third years. He in- 
vested all his savings in real estate, and made a considerable amount 
of money by trading in Mexican loan land warrants, etc. In 1849 
he entered George Smitli's bank, as corresponding clerk, at a salary 
of seven hundred dollars, and was soon promoted to the position of 
principal teller. He remained there till December, 1853, receiving 
fifteen hundred dollars the last year. 

His first political essay was made in 1849, when he " ran " for the 
position of County Clerk and was defeated, coming out third best 
in a scrub race between thirteen candidates. This disgusted him with 
politics, but in the autumn of 1853, he was prevailed on to accept 
the nomination for the same office, and beat his opponent by three 
to one. He held the position for four yeai-s and filled it so satisfac- 
torily that he was elected a second time in 1857, without opposition. 
He retired in 1861. For some three years he de\oted himself prin- 
cipally to the management of his property, though he took an active 
interest in the progress of the war as a leading member of the Ke- 
publican party. In 1865 he purchased an interest in the present 
house of John V. Farwell & Co., which had been established several 
years previously by his brother, the senior partner, who had succeed- 
ed in building up the largest wholesale dry goods business west of 
New York. J. V. now retired from active business, and Mr. Far- 
well at once assumed the control of the afiairs of the firm, which he 
Btiil retains, supervising the operations of a hundred and seventy-five 
521 



men, suul tho linmllinat of ix»hh1s. tlio salos of wliioli :ui\t>iint to ti-n 
millions of dollai-s anmiallv. 

His ivtiivniont from ottioo iliil not, liowovor, involve tho ftbiimlon- 
ment o( politioal labor. His well-known ability anil sa<;aeit,v, and 
his ot"t-testeil devotion to the IJeinibliean party with which he wjus 
identitied fivm it.s beginning, eaiised him to be eonsultod on the jne- 
Hminaries of every sneeeeding eanipaign, and tho valne attai-hinl to 
his siiggt^stions was shown by the faet that they were always acted 
njH>n. Thongh not anxious to take oftiee oi' any kind, ho has been 
twice elected to the Hoard of Supervisors of Cook county — was made 
chairman of that body in ISliT, and has held the ivsponsible position 
of nuMnher of the State Hoani of Equalization of Taxes. 

In 1S70 the Eepublican Congivssioual Convention of Cook coun- 
ty, Hlinois, nominated him for Congix^ss by an overwhelming ma- 
jority, thovigh the names of several very able and worthy gentlemen 
weiv brought forward as candidates. Tho election was equally de- 
cisive in his I'avor, although the Democrats etteeted a coalition with 
a largo nnniber of dis;ippointed Uepublicans, who left no stone un- 
tununl to defeat him. In the succeeding Congress he was noted for 
his close attentivm to business and his thorough acquaintance with 
tlie questions bixnight befoiv tho House. 

^Ir. Farwell luis always been ivgai-deii as one of tLe most liberal 
minded, public spirited citizens of Chicjigo, the givatness of which 
city is largidy attributable to tho nuuiifestation of tluv^e qualities in 
an unusuid degive by hor leading men. He h!\s ever been pronqit 
to contribute fi^eely of his nu\ius to help the cause of charity, of 
public enterprise, of ^xditical activity and national pi\>siH.M-ity. lli.- 
donations to the war fund wei-e largo during the Kebellion, and he 
hiis contributed libenvlly to chuivh work all over the city, and per- 
sonal distivss has seldom apivakxl to him in vain. He will long be 
reuiemWivd sis; having taken hold of the tii-st tunnel imder tho 
Chicago river at Washington sti-eot, when tho contrsictoi's had 
abandoned it in desj^air. and puslied it tlnvugh to a succosstnl com- 
pletion. We may add. too. that he is the only oue of the dry goods 



II o -•■? . en Mi. li . FA It \v K I- r, . 5 

mercliant princes in OiiicJifjo wlio rcfiiHo; to compete with hin pa- 
trons by selling at retail. 

Mr. Farwell was married in 1852 to Miss Mary E. Smith, of Wil- 
liarnstown, MaHsachiisetta. He is the father of two sons and three 
daughters, all of whom are now living. ITe is a regular attendant 
on the Berviws of the Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago, of 
wluch liis wife is a member. 

The subject of this sketch is still one of the mrx-it active men in 
the bustling city of Chicago, though the apparent necessity for ex- 
ertion has long since passed away. Probably no one man in the city 
is the recipient of so many calls outside the routine of his business, 
which, of itself is large enough to require constant attention. But 
he is never weary, never impatient, never at a loss, or appJirently in 
a hurry, though transafiting liis business with " lightning dispatch." 
He is one of the best informed men in the W^t, being perfectly at 
home on a vast range of topics, and there are few who have an 
equally profound knowledge of human nature; his knowledge r)f 
men and things having been drawn from observation rather than 
from books. 

He is eminently entitled to a place in our national annals, as there 
are very few men, even in the Garden City, who have risen to a po- 
sition of equal wealth and influence, or who have done so much good 
for the community while hienefiting themselves. 



nOK LEONAED MYERS. 



?lS^ i^ONARP MYERS, of PhilH.lolpliIa, a representative 
•v^5*^' ^'^^ rcnrmylvania, his native State, has been a member of 
Ir-r^- the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first 
Congresses, and was elected to the Forty-second as a Repuhlican, 
receiving 9,778 votes against 8,453. 

Mr. Myers received a liberal education, is an interesting writer, 
and has contributed to many popular Magdzines ; is also a 
good French scholar, and author of several translated works 
from the French language. His profession is the law. In 1854, 
when the several districts of Philadelphia were consolidated into one 
municipality, he digested the ordinances for the new government of 
the city. 

He was born near Attleboro, Penna., on the 1.3th of Nov., 
1827. In this rural place ten years of his early boyhood were passed, 
until his parents removed to Philadelphia. 

In the different Congresses of which he has been a member he has 
taken a part in all the important measures before the House. 

In March, 1866, he delivered an able speech on the " acceptance 
of the results of the war, the true basis of reconstruction." Several of 
his views therein expressed were adopted by the Congressional 
Committee on reconstruction. 

On the 7th of June, 18C6, he delivered before the House an im- 
portant speech relative to securing League Island as a Naval Station. 
In February, 1868, he earnestly and ably advocated the impeach- 
ment of Prest. Johnson; gave a review of the wrongs and misdemean- 
525 



2 HON. LKOXAIiO MVRR3. 

ors of wliich he had been guilty, and classed liiin with uii])rinni])lcd 
met:, the records of whose lives are a reproacli on the pages of 
iiistory. 

The President's advocates against impeachment relied upon the 
alleged "construction" which it was asserted the first Congress gave 
to the Constitution in regard to the power of removal by the 
President. 

Mr. Myers traced the history of legislation in the acts of Congress 
through the years 1789, 1792, and 1795; showing most explicitly 
how vacancies in the departments shall be filled, when the Presi- 
dent shall remove the principal officers. He asserted they were not 
" Constructions," but legislative grants of power which could be, and 
had been, repealed, and that in the first Congress the vote in the 
House was a close one, and in the Senate it passed only by the cast- 
ing vote of its presiding officer. 

In the Fortietli Congress he was a raeniber of the Committee of 
Foreign affiiira and urged the passage of the joint resolution appealing 
to Turkey for clemency iu behalf of the much oppressed inhabitants 
of Crete. In this Congress he favored the purchase of Alaska and 
delivered a speech embracing his views, which possess special interest. 

In June, 1865, Mr. Myers delivered a memorial address in Phila- 
delphia on our martyred Pi-esident, Abraham Lincoln. It was a 
speech of much eloquence, and at the time received many favorable no- 
tices from the press. It has a special interest for those who mourned 
his tragical demise, whose memory is still unforgotten. We make 
a few cKtracts: 

" Great occasions call forth the qualities of true greatness. Genius 
frequently calls opportunities for itself, but adversity is the crucible 
wliich tries men ; and when the storm comes and the waves run high 
and the passengers begin to despair, the quiet faith and bravery and 
skill of him who guides the vessel through in safety marks him dis- 
tinguished among his fellow men." 

" Such an one was Abraham Lincoln. His life covering nearly all 
52() 



nON. LKONAhU MYRHS. <{ 

of tlie present contmy, he stands in moral grandeur, the foremost 
man of his time." 

" The past four years hav^; been years of sad realities— of almost 
incredible romance, too. The stride of a centuiy was not expected 
to do so much. More history has been crowded into them tliaii will 
be told in ten-fold their time." 

"Four years ago American slavery falsified the declaration ot 
American liberty ; to-day that slavery is dead, and waits but the 
forms of burial. Four years ago the art of war, known to us in 
earlier struggles, seemed to have been forgotten; now the most war- 
like people on the earth, we again relapse into the pursuits of peace 
secured to us by the ordeal of battle. 

Four years ago, civil strife, the crudest test of a nation, long pre- 
dicti d, long, long warded off, had not yet fairly burst upon our hither- 
to fortunate land ; but it came in all its fury, and with the world as 
spectators, some confiding, but more predicting disaster, and political 
destruction. We have passed through the fiery furnace not un- 
scathed, it may yet be purified and regenerated. Eepublican insti- 
tutions have stood the trial, the sovereignty of the people, the ri'dit 
of the majority to rule, asserted in the beginning, has been vindicated 
to the end, even through rivers of blood. The flag was the shiijbo- 
leth, but, on its stany folds in storm and sunshine still floated the 
" Union " — the " People." 

" And all along this terriijle struggle every eye was bent, every 
thought turned to him who was at the helm, now in doubt, now in 
hope and confidi/nct ." 

"Remembering that a soft answer turneth away wrath, the oavil 
and the sneer fell harmless at his feet. With thanks for those wh<. 
approved, he kept steadily onward. True as the needle to the pole, 
he sought the salvation of his country, never forgettuig the priceless 
legacy committed to his keeping, never doubting the justice of his 
cause, or its final triumph, never taking a step backwards, and so 
n'iti the goal amid the hosannas of his countrymen." 

r.27 



4 TTOX. LF.ONARO MYERS. 

" ITo (Vud iu the fullness of a well-spent life, laid upon the altar 
of his country ; just when a mition's thanks and a nation's love 
seemed to encircle him ; when the sneer had died upon the lij), and a 
world had learned to know the greatness of his heart and intellect ; 
when he had demonstrated that among freemen there can be no 
successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and accomplished the 
task which he truly foreshadowed and devolved on none since the 
days of Washington." 

"The world contains no like record. A whole people stricken in 
the midst of the joy of victory and peace to the innermost depths of 
grief, flags- suddenly draped, the song of triumph hushed. Such 
sorrow never before trembled along the electric wire." 

They took him back to his home in the West by the route which, 
but little over four years since he traversed amid the shouts of a 
people. They laid him in the great Hall of Independence he bo 
revered, while from the belfrey above the solemn dirge floated away 
into the night, and ever as he was quietly borne onward to his resting- 
place, through pageants of unutterable woe, millions came quietly 
out to gaze upon his bier, or catch a glimpse of that dear face, and 
women laid flowers upon his coflin, and strong men wept like 
children." 

" Time may mellow the grief, but the gratitude of a nation wUl 
endure for ever. * * * Above all, let his death waken us to a new 
life, that henceforth treason shall be branded — a crime without a name 
— never in another generation to disgrace the ' land ; and where 
public virtue and unsullied honor and high principle need a synonym, 
let us remember Abraham Lincoln." 

Among the most useful laws of the session of 1869-70, was a 
thorough revision of the patent code. One section prescribed the 
payment of new fees which Mr. Myers believed to be violative of the 
interests and rights of inventors. In a short speech against the pro- 
vision he paid theni the following glowing tribute — " Our country 
sm-passes all others in the products of its inventive genius. In every 
528 



HON. LEONARD MYERS. 5 

branch of science and mechanism, in every department of art and 
literature, too, the men who have thus ennobled themselves have made 
us illustrious also, adding comforts innumerable, riches untold, not 
only to this people, already highly favored, but to all lauds. Fulton 
and Morse, Whitney and Goodyear, Wood worth and Howe, are but 
a few of the names enshrined in the memories of a grateful people. 
Remember that each decade produces new wonders in the develop- 
ment of the mechanic arts, new strides in the progress of American 
genius, and let our appreciation of the efforts and wants of inventors 
be shown more in practical action than in mere lip-service." The 
objectionable feature was struck out. 

It generally takes several years before a member can get upon the 
most prominent committees. In his third congress, Mr. Myers was 
placed on " Foreign Affairs," which in the " Senate " is first in rank 
and in the " House " second only to the " Ways and Means." His 
remarks on the " Alaska" Bill reported from that committee were so 
well liked as to be published at the time in many of the newspapers, 
but the most valuable work in which he took part was a Bill reported 
in the last Congress to declare the rights of American Citizens abroad. 
This Bill became a law, most potent in its results. England .had 
always claimed the doctrine of "Allegiance" that the duties of her 
citizens were " inalienable." We wan-ed against her in 1812 chiefly 
because of this assertion, but, after all, that war ended without 
determining the question. 

Mr. Myers has been successful in his efforts to secure for his city 
national recognition of its claims, as the appropriate point for 
celebrating the centennial anniversary of American Independence. 
We give a short extract from his speech, on this subject, delivered 
in the House, on the 14th of December, 1870 : 

"Mr. Speaker, in a little more than five years hence America will 

witness the most remarkable celebration that history will have to 

record — the hundredth birthday of a republic which has done more 

good for mankind than ever before was accomplished by a:iy Govern- 

520 



r, noN. i.i:oNAi?n myers. 

inont. T) will nvirk n coiilmy of such advancement, not only in 
tVccilom, hilt in discovery and science and civilization, as was never 
di-eainod of by 'liP wildest enthusiast. National holidays arc the 
wcU-sinings at which a people drink new life, remembering the 
sources of their happiness; and this great holiday will recall and 
reiterate for posterity the noble beginnings, the self-sacrilicing virtues 
of the fathers who framed a government in which liberty was the 
coruer-stono and manhood the only title to preferment." 
530 



MANSFIELD TRACY WALWORTH. 



l.ll/SjANSFIELJJ TRACY WALAVORTJI was born in All,any, 
K Y., on the 3d of December, 183(J. His father was 
Chancellor Walworth, who attained very great enainence 
as a jurist, being for twenty years the chief judge of the Court of 
Chancery of New York State. The decisions of the Chancellor were 
regarded by the members of the bar as of great weight and ability, 
and are cited to-day in the various courts of the United States as of 
binding authority in determining many intricate principles of equity 
law. One of the peculiarities of this distinguished jurist was the 
industry he brought to bear upon all his legal investigations. His 
decisions are enriched by Oriental and Occidental lore. He was 
authorized by the State, at his suggestion, to appropriate certain 
unclaimed Chancery funds to the purchase of a miscellaneous li- 
brary of rare works, in every department of learning, which should 
be attached to the Chanceiy Library and be accessible to the mem- 
bers of the bar for general reference and for their literary culture, 
no profession requiring more general historical and scientific learn- 
ing than the profession of the law. 

The bias in favor of a life pursuit or occupation is frequently deter- 
mined by the surroundings of the boy. Chancellor "Walworth held 
the summer terms of his court in a wing of his residence at Sara- 
toga Springs and here for many years was this valuable miscellaneous 
library deposited. Here the son acquired his literary tastes, and in 
this wing of the mansion the boy of twelve summers pui-sued a 
course of systematic reading which laid the foundations of his liter- 
ary culture broad and deep. The works were all solid Iiistories, 
explorations, biographies, scientific treatises, and theological disqui- 
531 



2 MANSFIELD TRACY WALWORTH. 

sitions. Young Walworth made himself familiar with the eontenta 
of the greater part of tliis select library before he was sixteen years 
of age. He was an excessive student like his illustrious father and 
made excellent use of his advantages. Entering Union College at 
the age of sixteen he graduated two years after, thus making in two 
years the college course, when most young men enter the Freshman 
Class at sixteen and graduate at twenty. His Freshman and Soph- 
omore studies he had made previously at school. Dr. Nott, tlie 
famous president of the college, hesitated to admit him to the Junior 
Class at so early an age. " You are too young, ray son," said that 
venerable scholar, " you ought to enter the Freshman Class." " I 
demand ray right of entering whatever class I can stand an exami- 
nation for," replied Walworth. lie was fully equal to the exami- 
nation which ensued, and graduated at eighteen years of age, the 
youngest graduate in a class of one hundred and forty members. 

Chancellor Walworth had set his heart upon making his son a 
lawyer, and at his earnest request Mansfield Tracy studied law for 
three years, was admitted to practice at the bar of New York. State, 
and was subsequently admitted to practice in the courts of the 
United States. The famous patent suit between Erastus Corning, 
of Albany, and Henry Burden, of Troy, known to thepublic as " The 
Spike Case" and involving a claim of $1,200,000, was referred at 
this time to Chancellor Walworth for decision. The subject of this 
sketch was appointed the clerk of this memorable reference and 
for ten years was constantly occupied in recording the testimony 
taken and preparing it for the press. The printed evidence finally 
made a great number of large volumes, almost a law library in 
itself, and is a living memorial of the labor of all parties engr.ged 
in this suit. 

It was during the pendency of this litigation that Mansfield Tracy 
Walwortli made his first serious essay in literature. A work ap- 
peared from the press of G. W. Carleton, New York, entitled " Lulu, 
or a Tale of the National Hotel Poisoning." It was received with 
marked attention by the press and caused a wonderful sensation in 
532 



MANSPIE],D TRACY WALWORTIF. 3 

the cities of Albany, Troy, and Colioes, and the villages of Saratoga 
Springs and Ballston, where it was claimed the author had taken 
his characters from real life. It was said that he had taken the 
great "Spike Suit" pending before his father for his text and had 
satirized some of the parties connected with it under diflierent names. 
It was asserted also that the shouts of laughter the book excited 
were at the expense of certain well-known personages in the State. 
Mr. Walworth, however, disclaimed any personalities in his book 
and maintained that he was burlesquing only a certain type of so- 
ciety. This position was sustained by a leading paper in Boston, 
which claimed that the author covdd certainly find the identical 
characters in Massachusetts. 

" Lulu" passed through several editions and was followed in the 
ensuing year by " Hotspur, a tale of the Old Dutch Manor," which 
was also favorably received and illustrated some nice points in 
criminal law. " Stormcliff, a tale of the Hudson," achieved a still 
more marked success and is considered the author's finest work so 
far as descriptions of natural scenery are concerned. 

But the great work thus fai', from the pen of Mr. Walworth, 
appeared in 1869, and gave the author notoriety in both England 
and America. This work is entitled " Warwick, or the Lost Na- 
tionalities of America." It is a romance of American life, in which 
an immense mass of antiquarian research is introduced, and it ex- 
hibits the author's varied scholarship and extensive reading. The 
success of this work of fiction has been wonderful, no less than 
sixty thousand copies having been printed and sold in fourteen 
months. Piiblic Opinion, a leading literary authority in England, 
says of it, " Americans must be congratulated upon having an 
author at once so eloquent and so pure-minded." Several English 
newspapers have paid this book high compliments, and it has been 
translated into French and read with avidity in Paris. Morris 
Phillips, thp accomplished editor of the New York Home Journal, 
to whom "Warwick" was dedicated, received a letter from the 
editor-in-chief of Puhli.c Opinion, in whiuh he says, " When I 
533 



4 MANSFIKLD TRACY WALWORTH. 

lond such !i work t'roin such a source, I feci jealous for tho reputa- 
tioii of my owu country" (England). 

Mr. AVal worth is now engaged upon his magnum opus, "Tho 
Lives of the Six Chancellors of Now York State." The first 
voluiuo, the Life of Chancellor Livingston, is completed and will 
1)6 published in the winter of 1870-71. He has also nearly com- 
pleted a new historical novel of the Persian war with Russia of 
1S2(>, which is looked for with interest, as the author has been for 
two years studying, at the State Library at Albany, Persian litera- 
ture and archajoliigy. He is a regular contributor to the Uoirw 
Journal aud tho Now York Hutorical Magazine. Historical 
sketches, tales, and descriptions of natural scenery flow constantly 
from his facile pen. He has written many sketches also for the 
Baltimore MetrojwI'dan Record, the New York Evening Express, 
the New York Courier, and the New York Leader. Ho is a resi- 
dent member of the New York Historical Society, at whose rooms 
he may often be seen diligently studyiTig and gleaning for his nu- 
merous literary enterprises. He is an orator of marked power, and 
in 1856 took the stump for tho Democratic candidate for the presi- 
dency. His addresses before the Victory Literary Association 
and other societies were printed, and may be found at the public 
libraries. He resides in the city of New York during the winter, 
and at Saratoga Springs during the heats of summer, upon the 
estate left by his father, the late Chancellor "Walworth, in that Til- 
lage. He is a flue classical scholar aud, though still young, a 
thoi'KUgli aniii)ii!iri;ui. 

534 




^A 



^^ 



^JM^t-^^s; 



GEOEGE E. nAEPJS, M. C. 



j'',~W I^OUT forty-four years ago there was living in Orange 

s^t!^ County, North CaroUna, Mr. E. W. Harris, a plain, indus- 
'^K^£ . . . 

'■*r^-(^ trious planter, who was every day diligently employed ac- 
quiring means for the support of a rising family. 

Here in 1827, in a retired section of the country, was the hirth- 
place of the present Member of Congress from Mississippi — Hon 
George E. Harris. 

In 1830 his father removed to Carroll County, Tennessee, and en- 
gaged in planting on a small farm. At this early day schools and 
colleges in our Western country were very few and the means for 
education were limited; only a few, upon whom fortune bestowed 
means, could enjoy the advantages of eastern seminaries and col- 
leges. 

Young Harris was not one of the favorite few, and was compelled 
by adverse circumstances to labor on his father's farm, to aid in the 
support of the family, to the total neglect of his education, except- 
ing the small amount of knowledge to be obtained in a few months 
at the country school. 

At the age of seventeen his ambition and desire to see more of the 
world induced him to leave his home, and making his way south- 
ward he arrived near Hernando De Soto County, Mississippi, with- 
out money, fiiends, or education. Here he commenced a livelihood 
for himself, working on a j)]antation two years, for small wages, and 
■,hen managed a plantation for himself. The country then con- 
tained but a sparse population, and was almost an unbroken 
535 



I OEOUOK E. llAIUilS, M. C. 

wilderness. By groat energy, indnslry and perseverance he 
soon acquiiod a limited English education, and commenced teach- 
ing a country school, continuing teaching and studying for three 
years. After this ho commenced reading law without an in- 
structor, and at the age of twenty-seven was admitted to 
the bar to ]>ractice iu the courts of the State. His practice steadily 
increased, and the kindness of his manners, promptitude and atten- 
tion to business luid clients, whether poor or rich, orplian or widow, 
if they had money or not to pay, gave him a snffiri at practice to 
sustain himself at the bar and to sujiport his family until the break- 
ing out of the late war. 

Having been an old-line whig, and a staunch Union man, he per- 
sisted in his love for a united country until his State went out of the 
union, and the war became sectional. Then he wont into the Con- 
federate army, and there romjiined until the surrender of the South, 
his prediction being fulfilled in the downfall of the Confederacy, 
At the close of the war in 18(55, he was elected District Attorney of 
the seventh Judicial District of Mississi])pi, receiving a plurality 
vote over five opposing candidates, of well-known ability and popu- 
larity, and was re-elected in the fall of 1S6G by a handsome majority. 

In this position ho had to prosecute with a heavy calendar of 
crime, and to meet and combat the combined talent of the bar of 
Northern Mississippi, which bar has but few superiors in America. 
Ho held this office until February, 1869, when an Act of Con- 
gress removed all officers who could not take the " test oath " of 
18G2, and compelled him to rolinqiiish his position, much to th^i 
regret of his many friends, but to the evident satisfaction of evil- 
doers, to whom he had long been a terror. 

In March, 1869, ho received from Brev. Maj. Gen. Gilliam, then 
commander of the military district of Mississippi, the appointment 
of Circuit Judge of the seventh Judicial District of the State, but 
being iraable to take the required with, did not accept. On the 20th 
\' October, 18'39, he received the nomination from the Republican 



GEORGE E. IIAliniS, M. 0. 3 

party as tlieir candidate for Congress for the unexpired term of the 
Forty-first, and full teita of the Forty-second Congress, as providea 
hy the State Constitution. 

He did not seek the nomination, attend the convention, or consent 
for his name to be used in connection with the office, but in his a1)- 
sence was nominated by acclamation, and the Hon. J. W. Vance,, of 
Hernando, Chairman of the Nominating Convention, in pledging to 
the Convention the acceptance of Mr. Harri.s, paid him the following 
glowing tribute: 

" In pledging you the acceptance of Colonel Harris of the honor of 
Ijeing your standard bearer, I am proud to say to you that in long 
years past I have been intimately associated with liim in social and 
official relations. I know him to be a man of honor, pure integrity, 
and morality; a noble, honest and christian gentleman, whose elec- 
tion will reflect credit to our party and do honor to our selection." 

After a brief and exciting canvass he was elected by nearly lour 
thousand majority, a vote which surprised his most sanguine friends, 
and carried consternation to the ranks of his opponent. 

As a member of Congress he is quiet and unostentatious, always 
at his post unless providentially hindered, and the record of yeas 
and nays finds his vote on the side of juKtice. He has taken an ac- 
tive part in the Legislation on all subjects that promised good for 
his section of the countrj', especially general amnesty to the citizens, 
the construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and other matters 
of public good. 

537 



GENERAL CHARLES W. DAELmG. 



^HIS citizen-soldier is entitled by reason of his meritorions 
services to honorable mention in this volume. We per- 
form a duty to the public, as well as an act of justice to 
the individual himself, in recording the events of a life not yet in 
its meridian, but full of usefulness and honor. 

The subject of this sketch has filled with credit many responsible 
positions in the State. He has evinced executive ability of no mean 
order, and, when occasion required, he has displayed the coolness of 
a veteran soldier. Early evincing taste and aptitude for military 
pursuits, when quite a young man he was offered, and filled with 
ability, positions on regimental, bi-igade, and division staffs of the 
National Guard of the State of New York. 

During the administration of Governor Morgan he was a mem- 
ber of his military family, and connecting himself with politics was 
elected president of the fifteenth council of the Loyal League. 
The sterling qualities, however, of General Darling, as a man and 
soldier, were first brought to public notice during the riots of 
1863. His eminent services at this trying period entitled him 
to the respect of the community. At the first outbreak of these 
dangerous commotions, Mr. Darling relinquished the ease of a lux- 
urious home, and promptly offered his services to General Sand- 
ford, then commanding the Ist Division N. Y. S. M. 

During the three days and nights of those disturbances, he was, 
in his capacity of volunteer " aid-de-camp," ever on the alert, and 
always at the post of danger. His efficiency and courage in those 
troublous times -were noticed in the public journals, and received 
marked recognition in the "special orders" of Generals Wool 
539 



2 CnARLKSWPARLING. 

and Sandtbrd. Testimonials addressed to him by those officers 
and also by tlie mayor of the city of New York then in of- 
tico, expressed in the most complimentary terms their apprecia- 
tion of his distinguished services in aiding to restore public order 
by the strong !U-m of military power. Had similar services been 
rendered in thejiehL they would, undoubtedly, have been followed 
by speedy promotion. 

While we do credit to those who resisted the aggressions of the 
rebel armies against the integrity of the Eepublic, why should we 
refuse a proper meed of praise to those who, with equal bravery, 
protected our altsu-s and liresidcs Irom intestine ravages ? 

From the period just referred to, General Darling has continued 
to occupy a high position in the esteem of the officei-s of our State 
and General Governments and the public at large. 

During the administration of Governor Fenton, he was one of 
the most trusted and coniidentia] advisers of that official, in all 
matters relating to the organization of State troops, the payment 
of bounties, and the care of soldiers and their families. 

On the 1st of May, 1S66, he received the appointment of" Com- 
missary-General of Subsistence," with rank of colonel. "When the 
governor's staff was organized, at the re-election of Mr. Fenton, he 
was appointed ''military engineer-in-cbief of the State of New 
York," with the rank of brigadier-general. 

"While filling these latter offices, General Darling assumed, by 
direction of the governor, the difficult and responsible duty of 
auditing the claims of the volunteers of the State of New York, 
for pay and bounty due to them from tJie State and Federal 
Governments. The proofs of these claims were didy authenticated, 
and settlements effected, without expense to the soldiers. A large 
number of cases were adjusted, and universal satisfaction was given 
to the patriotic men whose interests were intrusted to this faithful 
public official. 

540 



CHARLES W. DARI.INa. 3 

At the conclusion of this important service, Genera! Dariinj^ 
obtained leave of absence, and traveled extensively in foreign 
countries. Many interesting communications from his pen appeared 
in the journals of the day, graphically describing the various 
localities visited by him. An elaborate article on the " Suez 
Canal " is replete with interest, and contains much useful informa- 
tion on that subject. 

In the private life to which General Darling has retired, he is 

the object of the warm regard of a large circle of friends. His 

personal qualities insure to him great popularity, while his public 

services entitle him to the respect and confidence of the community. 

541 



^ 



CHARLES FOSTER. 

" ilONG tjie pioneerH of Northern Ohio, was Charle-i W. 
Foster, who was born in Massachusetts. While yet young, 
.^,>_, V he removed to the State of New York where he remained 
until the year 1827, when he went to Seneca county, 
Ohio, stopping first in Seneca township. 

His first year was spent in the service of his father-in-law, John 
Crocker — his wages for the term being just one hundred dollars. 

In 1832 he went to Rome (now Fostoria,) then but a little hamlet, 
in the same county, where Mr. Crocker liad entered eighty acres of 
government land. 

There he commenced the business of merchandising with a stock 
of about four hundred dollars in value. As was then universally 
the case with country dealers, this stock embraced every department 
of goods used in such sections — a variety not now to be found in no 
one establishment in town. 

By prudent management and close attention to business, he waa 
enabled, as the country became settled and improved, steadily to in- 
crease his tra<^le with corresponding pro-sperity, and established a 
highly honorable character as a dealer and a citizen, which he still 
lives to enjoy. 

Chablks Fostee, the subject of this sketch, was born in Seneca 
to'B'nship, Seneca county, Ohio, on the 12th day of April, 1S28. 

ffis opportunities for education, comparefl with thfjse so common 
at the present day, were very meagre, being limited to the common 
"district school" of the village, with the exception of nine months 
spent at the Norwalk (Ohio) Seminary, from which, at the age of 
fourteen years, he was called on account of the sickncrss »i' the whole 
family at home. 

543 



'J CHARLES FOSTER. 

The contlniiecl illuess of his father made it necessary for Cliarles to 
enter the store, which he never left, but of which he soon came to 
take the chief active management. His father had intended that 
he should pursue the College coui-se preparatory to which he had en- 
tered the Seminary. So rapid was the development of his business 
capacity, that when but eighteen years of age, he assumed the deli- 
cate and responsible charge of making the purchases of the estab- 
lishment in the eastern markets, which he continued until a short 
time since. 

The growth of the business of the house is probably without pre- 
cedent in the State. Situated within fourteen miles of the county 
seat of the prosperous town of Tiffin, and dependent entirely on an 
agricultural community for trade, it is quite clear that nothing but 
the most consummate ability, untiring eft'ort and strict integrity could 
have created a business which, for many years past, has ranged from 
$500,000 to $1,000,000 per annum. Wliile, of course, much of such 
remarkable results is due to the well laid foundation, and to the con- 
tinued co-openition of the father, it is still true, that the remarkable 
ability, the unremittiag devotion, and consummate management of the 
son, the later and more complete success is chiefly due. 

A few yeai-s since the adjoining and rival towns of Eome and 
Risdon were consolidated, and in just honor of its most prominent 
citizens, the new corporation assumed the name of Fostoria. 

With the immense merchandize trade of Foster & Co., has been 
connected a heavy traffic in grains, wool, pork, butter, eggs, etc., etc. 

To meet the growing wants of the town, and surrounding coun- 
try, this house, some time since, commenced a Banking business 
which, under the judicious and popular management which marked' 
the other branches of its business, has rapidly grown in importance, 
until the capital employed and deposits rival those of many city 
banks. 

Great as has been Mr. Foster's success in the conduct of his busi- 
ness, his claims to the consideration of his fellow-men rest far more 
in the manner and spirit of its manascment, and the use made of 
544 



c If A It I, ]•: s r <) s T E K . 3 

the great power thereby placed hi his hands. Extraordinary busl- 
ness prosperity in this cau^e has by no means calloused the heart, or 
closed it to calls of eitiier neighborly kindness or public wants. 

In all the community and region with which Mr. Foster has so 
long dealt, no one can be found with a reputation for liberality and 
enterprise, more extensive or better established than is his. No call 
of private charity or of sound public policy ever failed of prompt 
and liberal response from him. "While the various religious, social, 
educational and political interests of the community have always 
found sympathy and support from him, he has never been backward 
in promoting the material and commercial wants of his neighbors. 
His time and his money have ever been subject to demands of all 
kinds. To his active, enliglitened and liberal co-operation, more 
than that of any other person, is due the provision of railway facili- 
ties which liave contributed so largely to the rapid and substantial 
prosperity of Fostoria and the surrounding country ; and the same 
efficient agencies are active in other like enterprises. 

Though never indifferent to public affairs, and always participat- 
ing in political matters, Mr. Foster was never a candidate for pub- 
lic position— beyond that of a purely local character— until after 
repeated declinations, and protests, he was induced, in the summer 
of 1870, to accept the nomination of the Republicans of his district 
for Congress ; and the reluctant acceptance was only secured by as- 
surances of his political friends that he was probably the only man 
of sufficient personal popularity to overcome the recognized Demo- 
cratic majority in the district. 

The wisdom of the choice was indicated by tlie result of the elec- 
tion, which gave him a majority of Y7G over his Democratic com- 
petitor, Hon. E. F. Dickinson, a gentleman of unusual personal 
strength, who, ten years previously, was chosen by J 045 majority. 

No more emphatic compliment could be given than the vote cast 
for Mr. Foster by his immediate neighbors, who know him best, 
showing, as it docs, the liigh appreciation of his worth by acquaint- 
ances of both political parties. 

545 




pW//. l/7^7777r-Z) 



WILLIAM n. H. STOAVELL. 



I. H(? HE gentleman wliose name hea<k thw sketch i» descended 
■fr<;--| from one of the Puritan feimilies which came to America 

■^-^ in 1649, with the llaBsachti^^ttB "Bay Colony." His 
father, Sylvester Stowell by name, was a native of ilassachosetts, a 
Bt*;rb'ng jjatriot and a staunch Whig, whose tenets he embraced, be- 
lieving thera to emWxly all that constituted the republicanisnL Hia 
son, the subject of this sketch, was bom at Windsor, Vermont, in 
the month of July, 1840. In the Griimmar and High Schools of 
Boston, Mass., he received a rudimentary duc-ation, and he buW> 
quently studied at the Scientific School, displaying marked ability 
and meeting with much success. 

When the rebellion broke out in 1861, Mr. Stowell was a young 
man, just arrived at the age of maturity. He had been engaged pre- 
viously in mercantile pursuits in New Englan'l,but after ths downfall of 
the Southern Confederacy he removed to Richmond, Virginia, after- 
wards settling near Halifax Court House. This was in 1865. In 
Apiil, 1869, on the incoming of the administration of President 
Grant, he was appointed Collector of Internal Bevenue f vr the Fourth 
District of the State, a position which ho held and whose duties he 
[K-rformed with fidelity and to the unqualifi'^d satisfection of the na- 
tional authorities, until he was elected a Eepresentative in Con- 
gress in 1870. Mr. Slowell, also, at one time, held the position of 
United States Commissioner for his district, and was clerk of the 
County Court of Hali^ix County, previous to the reconstruction 
of Virginia. 

547 



2 WILLIAM II. 11. STOWCLL. 

In childhood taught to abhor the institution of slavery, Mr. Sto- 
woU grew up entertaining the deepest sympathy for the negroes of 
the South. Ai;d when they were emancipated by the result of the 
Civil Conflict, and ho went to live amongst them, it was natural in 
him to devote much of his time and labor to their welfare. For a 
while connected with the FrLcdincn's Bureau, he was enabled to ex- 
orcise the authority conferred upon him, in befriending the colored 
I>eoplc of Virginia, and the interest he manifested in their progress 
and prosperity won their confidence and made him popular among 
them. At the same time, although widely diflering from his white 
neighbors in pohtical sentiments, the circumspection exhibited by 
Mr. Stowell, and the avoidance of everything calculated to engender 
animosities, made him respected by the community at largo. 

When the great controversy between President il ohnson and Con- 
gress was inaugurated; Mr. Stowell at once sided with the legislative 
branch of the National Government. His ideas on the important 
question of reconstruction coincided with those of the majority in 
Congress: hence he supported heartily all the laws enacted for the 
purpose of restoring the Southern States to representation in the 
councils of the nation. He had always talien an active interest in 
political ailairs, and as a member of the Republican party, labored 
diligently and energetically to promulgate the principles of that 
pohtical organization among the people of his adopted State.- Pend- 
ing the reconstruction of Virginia, ho was officially engaged in car- 
rying out the laws wdiich finally brought the Old Dominion back 
into the Union. By appointment of General Schofield he was tho 
registrar of votes for Patrick County in 1SG7, and the same for 
Franklin County in 1S68. His duties were of a delicate nature, and 
such as were calculated to gain him the ill-will of the many white 
citizens who were disfranchised by the reconstruction laws. But 
Mr. Stowell so performed them as not to give any ollenso; nor did 
he wound the feelings of the most susceptible. 

The part he had taken in tho reconstruction of Virginia, and the 
54S 



WILLIAM H. U. STOW ELL. 3 

zeal ho had displayed in support of the Eopublican party, placed 
Mr. StoweU i)rominent]y before the people. He was nominated by 
the republicans of his district as their candidate for the position of 
Rspresentative in the Forty-first Congress, but was defeated by 
George W. Booker, who was the nservative candidate, and was 
again nominated by his party for the Forty-second Congress, and 
was elected last fall by more than three thousand majority; he 
receiving 12,851 votes, and his conservative competitor, Mr. Wm. 
L. Owen, 9,669. With a single exception, Mr. Stowcll is probably 
the youngest member of the United States House of Eepresenta- 
tives, being less than thirty-one years old. He took part in the first 
session of the Forty-second Congress, acquitting liimself with credit 
and adding to his reputation. A flattering political future lies be- 
fore him, and we feel certain that he wiU fully realize the expecta- 
tions of the constituency which has given him so decided a mark of 
their confidence in his ability to represent them faithfully. 
549 






HON. SAMUEL SHELLA.BARGEH 



•HERE are few names associated with tlie legislation of Con- 
gress for the past fifteen years more familiar to the pub- 
lic of the United States than that of Samuel Shella- 
barger. It first came prominently before the people at the very mo- 
ment when the curtain rose upon the drama of Secession, and 
when tbe country seemed standing on the edge of an abyss, 
over which nothing could prevent her falling but the strong 
arms and willing hearts of her sons. Dming the terrible or- 
deal of war there came to the sm-face of our politics men who, by 
their patriotic devotion to the republic, as well as by their ability, 
won the confidence and esteem of the masses and merited their gi-at- 
titude equally with the soldier who risked his life on the battle- 
field. If it may be tridy said that without the Union Army to 
protect there would have been no Congress to legislate, it may be 
said with equal truth that if their had been no Congress to legislate 
during the rebellion, there would probably have bi'en no Union 
Army to protect. Superficial minds can not recognize the causes 
which produce results. They are satisfied with witnessing the event, 
and seldom trouble themselves with the task of inquiring into 
primary causes which made such event possible. Thus it has been 
that much of the glory of the late civil war, which belongs by right 
to the men who enacted laws in Washington, has been most unjust- 
ly bestowed exclusively upon the soldier, whose valor and sacrifices 
undoubtedly merited the greatest possible applause, but whose hon- 
ors would not have shone less had the Congress which supported 



2 HON SAMTEL SHF-r-LAnARQEU. 

him throughout tho conflict been lowarJoil with a single laurel leaf 
from tho well-cnraod chaplet. 

I propose, in this article, to give a brief sketch of Samuel Shella- 
barger, of Ohio, one of those brave men who performed, during and 
after tho the war, signal services for his country. That destiny 
which controls the lives of all men did not send him to the bat- 
tle-field; but his sphere of usefulness was none the less important. 

Samuel Shellabargor was born in Chu-k County, Ohio, on the 
10th of December, 1S17, being one of a family of three brothers and 
five sisters, all of whom, with the exception of the eldest, are living 
at the present writing. His father was Samuel Shellabarger, a 
native of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, of Swiss-German ances- 
try, and his mothor, who still lives at Dayton, Oliio, in tho eighty- 
fifth year of her age, was Bethany M'Curdy, born near Brunswick, 
New Jersey. The old gentleman died in ISiJl, aged 63 years. He 
settled in Ohio many years before, and was a successful fanner, a 
man of strong mind, earnest christian faith, and much respected. 
Tlie subject of this sketch, who bears his father's name, first studied 
at the common schools of his county and afterwards at South Han- 
over, Indiana. At a later date he attended an academy in Springfield, 
Ohio, the city in which he now resides, and in 1839 he entered the Jun- 
ior Class in Miami Univei-slty, graduating with honors two yeare later. 
As a student Mr. Shellabarger was close and attentive. While at 
the University he wrote and delivered the first public address of liis 
life, entitled '' Frencli Revolution," the occasion being a contest of 
literary societies, to one of which the future Congressman belonged. 
Mr. Shellabarger devoted himself to his profession as a lawyer 
diligently and earnestly, and after a while men discovered his 
worth, and clients came in rapidly. His practice became large and 
profitable, and it is to this day as lucrative as ho could desire or 
expect. As a lawyer he is conscientious and pains-taking. He studies 
the details of every case in which he is retained, finds out its merits. 
and then works with a will to win it. In a newspaper paragraph 



HON. SAMUEL RHELLAB A KG EU. 3 

bcforf; UH, eviflently wn'tten by one well acf[uainted with the subject, 
we find it stated that " Mr. Bhellabarger does not indulge in oratori- 
cal flouriHlics. lie first masters every subject on which he intends 
to speak, and having arrived at a conclusion, expresses himself in 
clear, logical argument, plainly put, and put in words whose mean- 
ing and intent are unquestionable. It is his plain, eamesj; delivery 
which gives him the influence he possesses in the House of lie- 
presentatives. Mr. Shellabarger may be on the ^v^ong side sometimes, 
but when he is it is from conviction." These remarks were applied 
to his career in Congress, but they are equally applicable to his 
career as a lawyer. At the bar his oratory is most efiective, be- 
cause it is alv/ays plain and earnest. He avoids shows and clap- 
trap, prefemng to let his case stand upon its own merits. 

In our country the profession of the law is but a stepping-stone 
to political preferment. The reputation which Mr. Shellabarger 
acquired at the bar placed him prominently before the people, and 
as he engaged actively in the political discussions of the day, it was 
not long before he was singled out for political office. He entered 
the arena at an epoch of great importance. The slavery question 
had begun to afjsume gigantic proportions, and the " irrepressible 
conflict " of which Mr. Seward subsequently predicted was hasten- 
ing onward to realization. At this time, however, the Republican 
party was not yet formed, although it was evident even then that 
a new political organization, designed to check the progress of 
slavery and to resist the aggressive demands of the pro-slavery ele- 
ment, was becoming a necessity. The Whig party, to which Mr. 
Shellabarger belonged, fought well in its dying days; but its extreme 
conservatism and timidity could not successfully grapple with the 
democracy. In 18.52 Pierce, the almost unknown candidate of the 
democrats for the Presidency, defeated General Scott, the hero of 
fifty battles, who upheld the banner of the Whigs, and during the 
same year Mr. Shellabarger made his debut as a member of the 
lower house of the Ohio Legislature, for Clark County, in which 
5.53 



i HON. SAMUEL Sll EL L A 15AUGER. 

he rtsiiled, was always reliably Whig, even as to-day it is 
one of the most reliable republican counties in the S;.ate. 
Nevertheless the prospect was anything but cheering. Pierce's 
Tictory had crushed the Whigs beyond hope of resuirection, and it 
seemed as if the upholders of slavery had obtained a twenty years 
lease of ^)ower. 

It was under such gloomy circumstances that the subject of this 
sketch first appeared in the position of a legislator. He served in 
the legislatm-e during 1852 and 1853, and on the expiration of his 
term declined a re-election and returned to private life. His career 
in the House, had, however, been satisfactory to his constituent.^^, who 
remembered well in after days the services he had rendered them. 
Soon after his retirement the republican party was formed, and with 
it Mr. Shellabarger cast his political fortunes. A determined op- 
ponent of the institution of slavery, he did not disguise his sympa- 
thy with the enslaved, aud his ardent desire to see them set free. 
The Whig voters of his district and county went over to the new 
party en-masse, and when 1856 came, Ohio cast her electoral vote 
for Fremont. To the attainment of this end Mr. iShellabarger 
hxrgely contributed. He took an active part in the canvass, deliver- 
ing numerous speeches, and adding to his reputation by the force and 
eloquence of his arguments. Buchanan was elected ; but it was 
apparent that the democracy had achieved their last triumph for 
some years to come. The storm which was to burst four years later 
gathered over the country with inconceivable rapidity. Secession 
was no longer spoken of as a reserved right of the State, whose 
exercise was probable, but as a reserved right whose exercise was ne- 
cessary. In the midst of the intense excitement which prevailed during 
the four succeeding years, Mr. Shellabarger remained an indomitable 
defender of the Union. He sternly opposed all propositions of com- 
promise with the South, declaring that they would, if adopted, 
merely avert a crisis, and not prevent one. 

He had now become prominent in the politics of Ohio, and in 1860 
554 



HON. SAMUEL SnELLAB ARGER. 5 

was nominated for Congress by the reiiublicans, and elected by a 
large majority. When Mr. Shellabarger arrived in Washington the 
excitement was great; State after State of the South was leaving 
the Union, and the first speeches the new Kepresentative ever heard 
in Congress were those delivered by Jefferson Davis, Judah P. Ben- 
jamin, John Slidell and other Southern Congressmen, in bidding 
farewell to their colleagues, prior to joining the rebellion. He took 
his seat in the House on the4th of July, 1861, and at once entered upon 
the active work of the session. The crisis was a great one, which needed 
men ot great ability and nerve to carry the country successfully 
through it. Mr. Shellabarger was one of these men. Every war 
measure of the administration received his support. His first 
great speech in Congress was delivered on the 12th of May, 1862, on 
the " Kightfulness of President Lincoln's Suspeusion of the Writ of 
Habeas Corpus." His famous reply, early in 1863, to Vallandigham 
and other Democrats who had assailed the government for arresting 
such men as Merryman and Kane, was a master-piece of patriotic 
argument. He recognized the right of Representatives to take the 
administration to task for wrong-doing. Perhaps it will be best to 
quote from the speech, to show Mr. Sheila barger's view on the 
subject : — 

" It is not the right, merely, Irat the duty, of every representative 
of the people to watch, and by truthful, manly criticism, to guard 
the interests of the people and of their government, by detecting and 
exposing the errors and wickedness of the highest and lowest 
officer of the government. If a bad proclamation has been issued, 
if a vicious policy has been inaugurated, if a faithful and able com- 
mander has been superseded, or frauds have been committed, show 
these by patriotic and reasonable appeals to facts; and every patriot 
in the land will honor you, and will leap to your support in coiTect- 
ing the error. I bow in blind adoration to no Piesident, no party, no 
administration; I know none of them as such in this frightful stvr.g- 
gio for national I'fu; I honor the man v/ho makes this government 



6 HON. SAMUKr, SIIKLLAHAIKIKR. 

stronger by showing its fiiults. But, Sir, the utterances I have 
citod belong not to lliis chiss of truthful or reasoning exposures, or 
rolmke of error in this government." 

Wc have already said that Mr. Shellabarger entertained the ut- 
most detestation of slavery. In the speech from which we 
have already quoted he attacked the "peculiar institution" of 
the South and cited the words of Washington, Jefferson and others 
to prove that the founders of the government were opposed to the 
traffic in human flesh and blood. Alluding to the Democratic 
prediction that the Republic was doomed, he said : — 

" Sir, if the Republic must perish, let all those holy memories of its 
origin, to which I have alluded, and the names of its founders, 
perish also ; and let that vail never rise again to agonize the hearts 
of a perished people by the memories of the frightful delusion under 
which an experiment in free government was begun — a delusion, a lie, 
enunciated in those words upon which that experiment was begun, 
that "all men by nature are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness ;" and, sir, let their names perish from among men who 
deceived their children into the belief that " neither slavery nor in- 
voluntary servitude ought to be extended except in punishment of 
crimes." I, sir, have not exhibited again for the ten thousandth time 
the words and deeds of these men of the past, in the vain hope of con- 
vincing the gentleman from Illinois, or any one who says that the non- 
abandonment of our principles at the bid of rebellion caused this war 
— that Washington and Franklin and Madison and Jefferson and 
Patrick Ilenry and Burke and Wilbef'orcc and Blackstone and 
Grotius and Mansfield and Wesley and Baxter and Addison and 
Clay and Webster were right. Nay, sir, not in the hope to convince 
him that the universal conscience, example, and heart of modern 
christian civilization is right. In obedience to these, at the period of 
our revolution, from the vast dominions of England, human 
slavery, like a bird of evil, took its everlasting flight. And in 
obedience to these it has been banished forever, since our revolution, 
556 



HON. SAMUEL SHELLABARGER. 7 

from France, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, the Dutch West indies, 
and, indeed, from almost every civilized country upon the face of the 
globe. Nay, sir, not in the vain hope to convince him that the 
teachings of all these and of the Divine revelation are right, whose 
sublime precepts do inculcate a benevolence which, to adopt the* 
words of Patrick Henry, " is at variance with that law which warrants 
slavery." * * * I have cited them to show hiiu that if it 
would have been a dishonorable compromise for him to be bullied out 
of his principle of " squatter sovereignty," by Yancy at Charleston, 
then it would be dishonorable to compromise in us, to be bullied out 
of our principles at Washington by Benjamin or Toombs or Mason, 
because we had reason to believe in ours. 

Eel'erring to the prediction of lilr. Vallandigham, of Ohio, that 
the war for the Union would ignominiously fail, Mr. Shellaliarger in 
the same speech, said : — 

" Sir, it may fail. * * The gentleman may be right ; and this 
people may be so craven as not to defend by the sword the insti- 
tutions and liberties which Washington, under God, won by the 
sword. But, sir, let heaven, earth, and hell be witnesses of what 
T say ; if this struggle should, as the gentleman says it will, igno- 
miniously fail to deliver the Union and Government from a rebellion 
against the right of popular suffrage, against republican institutions 
and the liberties of the poor man — for, mark it, that is what the 
rebellion is — then, sir, that failure will be the result of efforts here 
to alienate the people of this Government from its support, and of 
the meditated purpose of northern conspii'ators to unite us to the 
government of the rebellion. * * * And, sir, in the Inferno of some 
future Dante, who shall trace the spirits of those who are the archi- 
tects of this hideous ruin, the infernal limner will paint in the fore- 
ground of his canvas of mingled fire, blood and tears, among their 
chiefs, them who incited the rebellion, by promising to this treason, 
as its best ally, one half of the North, and whose treachery to their, 
countrv at last made the hellish promise good." 
557 



8 HON. SAMUEL SIl ELLABARGER. 

This speech, of which we have given but fragments, attracted 
considerable attention, and at once placed Mr. Shellabarger on the 
roll of our ablest debaters and orators. It also added greatly to his 
popularity at large, and did much towards procuring for him the 
repeated endorsements of his constituents at the polls. It must br- 
remembered, also, that in the fall election of the previous year Mr. 
Shellabarger had been defeated for re-election by Samuel S. Cox, 
now a representative in Congress from New York City. This was 
at a period of deep gloom, when the people were disheartened by the 
reverses the Union arms had met with. When Mr. Shellabarger 
delivered this speech the situation had not matei-ially improved. In 
fact it had, if anything, become more dismal. Sherman had just 
been baffled at Vicksburg, and Lee's Army, flushed with recent vic- 
tories, was getting ready for its great invasion of Pennsylvania. 
But the subject of this sketch never faltered for a moment. He saw 
men around him grow weak of heart and heard the whispers of dis- 
honorable compromise undismayed and uninfluenced. "The last 
man and the last dollar " were with him not idle words, but word? 
pregnant with great meaning. He did not believe that the war fo' 
the Union would " ignominiously fail," and so he voted steadily for 
every coercive measure calculated to restore the Union and strike of 
the fetters of the slave. 

Two years passed, during which Mr. Shellabarger, in his private 
capacity, continued to extend an active support to the administration. 
In 1864 he again became a candidate for Congress, and as in 1852, 
was opposed by Mr. Cox. He was elected by a majority of neai 
three thousand in the same district where in 1862 he was defeated' 
(liy about two hundred,) but by frauds at the election, which, 
after too late for contest, were not seriously denied, and took 
his seat during the following year. All the dark clouds which had 
covered the countiy seemed dispelled. Secession had been crushed ; 
the South lay prostrate, and the negroes were free. But the contest 
had only ended on the battlefield to be taken up in the political 
558 



HON. SAMUEL SH ELI. A B A EG Ell. 9 

arena. Mr. Johnsou's famous " policy " was no sooner inaugurated 
than Mr. ShellaLarger opposed it. From the inuipiency of the great 
struggle between the President and Congress he sided with the latter, 
striking heavy blows at the timid conservatism, which he believt-d 
was willing to abandon the fruits of the successes gained by the 
Union Armies. The part taken by him in the legislation which 
followed the outbreak between the two branches of the government 
was conspicuous and important. On the question of reconstruction 
he delivered, probably, the ablest speech of his congi-essional career. 
It was in many respects a remarkable production, and attracted general 
attention. Fifty thousand copies were printed by subscription and 
circulated throughout the coimtry, as a political campaign document, 
and many newspapers published the speech ia full in their columns. 
Our space will not admit of any extended quotations, but we shall 
give a few extracts showing the scope of Mr. Shellabarger's argument 
and the views he held on the momentous question before Congress. 
Reconstruction he defined in the following language, which, for 
terseness and condensation of thought, is equal to anything that can 
be found in American oratoiy : 

"It is," said he " under our Constitution, possible to, and the late 
rebellion did, in fact, so overthrow and usm-p, in the insurrectionaiy 
States, the legal State governments, as that, during such usurpation, 
such States and their people ceased to have any of the rights or 
powers of government, as States of this Union ; and this loss of the 
right and powers of governments was such that the United States 
may and ought to exercise local powers of the lost State govern- 
ments, and may control the readmission of such States to their pow- 
ers of government in this Union, subject to and in accordanci 
with the obligation to "guarantee to each State a rejjublican form 
of government." 

Having thus defined reconstruction, Mr. Shellabarger proceeded to 
discuss the question, what, by law of nations, is a State. He next 
cons'd; red what a State of this Union is, and showed, in notably clear 
559 



10 HON. SAMUEL SHELLABARO ER. 

.'ind peisp'ruous language, that the constitution deals with States, 
in reply to the assertion of Mr. Kaymond, of New York, that it does 
not, except in one or two instances. On the subject of the restoration 
of the States, Mr. Shellaharger said : 

" If these States lost their power and rights as States, by what au- 
thority and means are they restored ? Is it accomplished by mere 
cessation of war and the determination of the rebel inhabitants to 
resume the power of States ; or is this government entitled to take 
jurisdiction over the time and manner of their return .? I hold that 
the latter is the obvious truth. Let it be admitted that these rebel 
districts may, without the assent of the United States, and without 
regard to the state- of their loyality, resume, at pleasure, aU the 
powers of States — this government having no jurisdiction to deter- 
mine upon the question of their loyality or the republican character 
of the new State governments — then we have this result. 

" There were, during the first year of the war, twenty-three rebel 
Senators, including Breckenridge and another. That was more than 
one-third of the Senate. These twenty-three in the Senate are 
enough to deprive the United States of aU. power ever to make a 
treaty, or to expel a member from the Senate, or to remove from 
office by impeachment a rebel Secretary of War like Floyd, a rebel 
Secretary of the Treasury like Cobb, or a rebel United States Judge 
like Humphreys, or au imbecile President, who thought secession 
unconstitutional, and its prevention equally unconstitutional, like 
Buchanan. How long, sir, could your government survive with such 
a Senate, one-thii-d rebel ? How long can you live deprived of those 
powers vital to every government ? Not a week, sir." 

In this same speech, and in reply to Mr. Kaymond's question asking 
for the " Specific Act " in the rebellion which deprived the rebel 
Slates and people of the powers of States in government of the Union, 
he, amongst other things, used these words, " I once more answer 
iii:ii, in the words of the Supreme Court, that the specific acts were: 
ihcv causelessly waged against their own government ' a war which 
SCO 



HON. SAMUEL S II ELL A B A UaER. U 

all the world acknowledged to have been the greatest civil war known 
in the history of the human race,' " * * * * " They discarded 
oaths and took in their places oaths to support your enemies' govern- 
ment. They seized in their States all the nation's property. Their 
Senators and Representatives in your Congress insulted, bantered, 
defied and then left you. They expelled from their land or assassi- 
nated every inhabitant of known loyalty. They betrayed and sur- 
rendered your armies. They passed sequestration and other acts 
in flagicious violation of the law of nations — making every citizen of 
the United States an alien enemy and placing in the treasury of their 
rebellion all money and property due such citizens. They framed 
iniquity and universal murder into law. They besieged, • for years, 
your capital, and sent yoiur bleeding armies, in rout, back here upon 
the very sanctuaries of your national power. Their pirates burned 
your unarmed commerce upon every sea. They carved the bones of 
your unburied heroes into ornaments; and drank from goblets made 
out of their skulls. They poisoned your fountains, put mines under 
youi' soldier's prisons, organized bands whose leaders were concealed 
in your houses, and whose commissions ordered the torch and yellow- 
fever to be carried into your cities, to your women and children. 
They planned one universal bonfii'e of the North, from Ontario to 
Missouri. They murdered by systems of starvation sixty thousand 
of your sons — as brave and heroic as ever martyrs were. They de- 
stroyed, in five years of horrid war, another army so large that it 
would reach almost around the globe in marching colunnis. And 
then to concentrate into one crime all that is criminal in crime and 
all that is detestable in barbarism, they killed the President of the 
United States ! " 

Then, after saying these were not alluded to for any purposes of 
crimination or to revive this dreadful past, he said: " I allude to them 
to condense their monstrous enormities of guilt into one crime, and 
to point the gentleman from New York (Mr. Raymond,) to it, and 
tell him that was " the Specific Act." 
5(>1 



I'J nOX. SAM r EI. SUF.LLAltAUCiEn. 

Wc shall not make any I'urtlior iiuotations from this speech, be- 
cause it must be read throughout for its merits to be fully api)r^ciateJ. 
Patriotic and convincing, its eftVct upon the public mind was in- 
stantaneous and decided. But it was not by his speeches alone that 
Mr. SlioUabarger aided in the consummation of the reconstruction 
policy of Congress. He was a hard worker in Committee and in the 
House. Some of the most important amendments to the reconstruc- 
tion acts were drawn up and presented by him. Mr. Shellabarger 
drew the first bill ever pass d by the house of representatives for re- 
organizing a revolted State, being that of the reorganization of 
Louisiana, offered by Sir. Elliot, of Massachusetts, from the Select 
Committee on the New Orleans Riots, of which the author of the 
bill was a member. The section of the first great reconstruction act 
of Mai'ch, 1867, which declared the governments of the Rebel States, 
prior to re-admission to Congress, " jirovisional only," and subject to 
the control of Congress, and that in them all races should be enti. 
tied to the privilege of the elective franchise, was drawn by I^Ir. 
Shellabarger late at night, in presence of the late Thaddeus Stevens 
and Mr. Kellcy, both of Pennsylvania, and of others, in the room of 
the Committee on Ways and Means. This occurred amidst the 
intense excitement attendant on the passage of the bill, and it 
became a law, as written in the first draft. The vote, which 
was taken by tellers, and which decided it might be offered, 
close, and Mr. Stevens declared that the succsss of the measure was the 
most important vote in which he had participated during his long 
career in Congress. 

Among the many able speeches deUvered by Mr. Shellabarger, in 
the House of Representatives, were those on the " Privileges of Citi- 
zens in the United States," on the " Restoration of Louisiana, 
and on the " Constitational pswer of the United States to Disfran- 
chise for RebeUion," the latter boing delivered during the 39th Con- 
gress. He also delivered a forcible argument against the acquisition 
of Alaska, and in defense of the right of the House to refuse appro- 
562 



nON. SAMUEL sHELLABAllOEK. 13 

priating money to caiTy out the treaty with Russia. Anotlier nota- 
ble sps'-ch was that upon the powers and duties of the two houses of 
Congress in counting the electoral votes for President of the United 
Statei, delivered on Mr. Butler's resolution of cansure against the 
Hon. Benjamin Wade in the count of Grant's and Saymour's vote in 
1869. HLs speech on the Nullification Doctrines of the Broadh;ad 
Letter, of October 6th, 1868, was pronounced by leadir.g journals as 
one of the most powerful of our day, and was printed and circulated 
by the Republican National Committee as a campa'gn speech. It 
will be found in full in the Washington Chronicle of October 17th, 
1868. The following extract may serve as a specimen of one char- 
acteristic of his descriptive style : 

" In illustration of that element in the career of the Republican 
party which exhibited it as accomplishing marvelous events but 
struggling long to ignore God, maintain slavery, and, after driven of 
God to its aboUshment, as being then tempted to abandon 'the 
Emancipated ' to their fate under the policies of the Broadhead Let- 
ter, he employed as his simile, the career of the astronomer Laplace, 
which career he described thus : ' He aimed to dismiss from His 
universe, its Great First Cause,' and went off in searh of that 
central world upon which he thought all other worlds were hung, 
ft ti a s j[i5 gtafif was the forces of gravitation which Newton 
gave him ; and for his compass he had the ' inductions ' of Bacon. 
He went imperious in his conscious strength; and each footfall 
marked a new epoch in science, as it marked a new sun in space. 
And as he went on and on, stiU deeper in the unexplored abyss, he 
haughtily shook from his very sandals the star-dust with which he 
lighted up the pages of his divine science for all coming time. And 
so he went proudly on fi-om star to star, through the illimitable 
wilderness of stars, until he reached, at last, its central place and 
power — and found there — not a sun but a — God. And then he 
turned his back upon the universe's Central Light, and walked into 
night, in the darkness of his own shadow." 
563 



14 UOK. SAMCEL SU ELLAB A UG E K. 

Mr. Shcllabarger is the principal author of the Bill passed 
during the first session of the 42 J Congress, and now a law of the 
land known as the Ku Klux law, for the protection of the privileges 
and immunities of citizens of the United States, and which as chair- 
man of the Select Committee on that subject, he reported to the 
House. Previous to its passage, he delivered two speeches upon 
this measure, both of which fully sustained the reputation their 
author had already won for eloquence and solid argument. Mr. 
Shcllabarger had the management of this measure in the House 
throughout that unprecedented debate and struggle which distin- 
guished this session of Congress, just ended at this writing. 

Declining a re-election in 1868, Mr. Shellabarger, nevertheless, 
took active part in the exciting Presidential canvass of that year. 
Soon after the inauguration of President Grant he was appointed to 
a foreign mission, which he held until 1870, when he resigned and 
returned to his home iu Ohio. In October of the same year he was 
again a candidate for Congress', and was elected by a majority of 
about fourteen hundred. 

As briefly as possible we have given the salient points in the 
career of Mr. Shellabarger. If we have not indulged in fulsome adu- 
lations it has been because there was no occasion for them. The 
man and his works are before the American people. Patriotic with- 
out indulging in too many protestations of patriotism ; magnani- 
mous yet firm ; a hater of oppression and advocate of liberty ; ever 
ready to extend a helping hand to the victims of man's inhumanity;" 
his pubHc life abounds in deeds which benefited his country and of 
the memories of which, bequeathed as a legacy to them, his children 
may well feel proud. And as a private citizen, too, Mr. Shellabar- 
ger's career has been most exemplary. We have shown him as a 
student, then as a successful lawyer, and next as a legislator plead- 
ing the cause of the Union and aiding in the great work of emanci- 
pating four millions of slaves. In his pleasant home at Springfield, 
Ohio, a picture of domestic felicity could be drawn equally favorable. 
564 



HON. SAMUEL SHELL ABAKGER. 15 

Mr. Shellabarger was married on the 25th of May, 1848, to Miss 
Elizabeth Brandrifi", by whom he has four children 

And now we take leave of Mr. Shellabarger. Intho prime of life, 
it the height of his intellectual vigor, the future before him is full of 
bright promises. Foremost amongst the statesmen of the republican 
party, we feel assured that whether, as at present, one of the rulers 
Df the republic, or in the ranks of a minority opposition, his voice 
will ever be heard in advocacy of those great principles which tri- 
amphed after years of bloodshed and desolation had endeared them 
oQore strongly than ever to the hearts of American citizens. 
565 



I 




( // 



^ 



GENERAL JEREMIAH M. "RUSK. 

FREE FROM DECEIT HIS HEAD, AND FtJI.L As FEEE HIS HEART." 

i-''*EN'EEAL J. M. EUSK was born in Morgan county, 
Ohio, in 1 830, and settled in Vernon (then Bad Ax) county, 
Wisconsin, in 1853, where he has ever since resided. He 
was sheriff of the county some years, and represented his- 
district in the Assembly in 1862. He was commissioned Major of 
the Twenty-fifth "Wisconsin Eegiment in July of that year. After 
a brief service in the Minnesota Indian Campaign, his regiment 
was ordered down the Mississippi and up the Yazoo river, and sub- 
sequently participated in the siege and capture of Yicksbnrg. Af- 
ter that place fell, he returned to Helena, and was promoted Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel of his regiment, and was for a short time President 
of a Court Martial there. 

On the 1st of February, ISGl, he took command of his regiment, 
joined Gen. Sherman's army, and participated in the Meridien 
campaign. He was complimented in general orders for the disci- 
pline he maintained on that march, and for not losing a man from 
straggling or inattention. He continued with Gen. Sherman, par- 
ticipating in all the hot fights in the Atlanta campaign, from May 
1st until the battle of Jonesboro, which gave us possession of 
Atlanta in September. At the battle of the " Twenty-Second of 
July," when the heroic McPherson fell. Gen. Eusk was in command 
at the front, and lost one-third of his men. He was fairly cut off 
and surrounded by soldiers armed with sabre bayonets, at one time. 
His sword was seized, and he was ordered to surrender, but seizing 
his pistol, he used it with such deadly effect that he broke through 
his assailants, and escaped with a slight wound in his leg and the 
loss of his horse, riddled with bullets. I mention this as an inci- 
567 



:t G K X . J K K K M 1 A 11 M . K I- S K . 

dent in illustration of liis bravorv and daring; conduct under trying 
(.'irtfunistmict^ is a fjur index ot" cljaracter; opportunities make 
lueu — wo Jiro croaturvs ol" circumstances. Distinctive traits of 
character, or jHxsitive qusilities cannot be successfully assumed for the 
ivcasion. Give a man an opportimity, and tlie metal he is made 
^f, either voluntcvrily or involuntarily on his jvirt, will be made 
»o appear. The keen iH^rception at' a discriminating public will 
sivn detect the impostor, notwithst^uiding he may play the game 
with consummate art. The public man, esj^cially, cannot long 
play nndetected the part of the deceiver. Cren. Ensk is a true 
man. " Frt* from dei.vit his head, and full svi free his he;ut." 

Af\er the bsittle of Jonosboro he followed Hood Ixick into Ala- 
bam.% then n-'turne^l to Atlanta, and in Sherman's '* March to the 
So!»," he had command of the adrance of the Seventoenth corps, 
having the skirmislierss pioneei^ engineers, and the p».intoon train 
nnder his chsirge. In the Carolina Camp.sign, from Beaufort Island 
nortb, he was brevetted Brigadier-Grencral for gallantry at the battle 
of Saukahatchie, in Febrn!\ry. Hexe, to use Gen. Mower's ex- 
pression, he nxle farther into hell that he ^,Mower) would go, and he 
was the only man he had seen who would take such risks. This 
campiiign Lasted aWut two months. He was mustered out in Jime, 
ISOo. Frv>m the May previous he had been constantly on duty in 
Gen. Sherman's .irmy every day. 

"VThen his regiment \vas mustered ont, officers and men nnited in 
expressions of rcgarvl and esteem, and he was highly commended 
by liis snjvrior officers for gallantry. 

The following is a copy of a c;u>i that appeared in the "Wis- 
cousin State Journal on the sepsiration of the officers of the Tweuty- 
tit\h K<^iment, Wisconsin Volunteers : 

A Cakix 
Amekican HorsK, Mamsos. Wis., June 35.'A, 1SG5 
Wo, the undersigned officers of the 35th Wisconsin Infantry, 
hereby take this oppv^rtunity, upon this occasion of the disbanding 
568 



f, K .V . ./ K k E M I A JI M . U C (i K . 8 

of our iniUtary oyf^nizntiou, to cxpre»> our efete<,-rn and profound 
legard for Colonel J, M. IliiiiL We part from him fwling in our 
)i<;;irts tliat we liave Ijid g(j<A-\>yti to our leader, than whom there 
in not one more dariii;< or gallant. 

i^Jrnel/lhering that he led u» through Georgia " down to the sea," 
and through the swamps of the Carolinaij ever mindful of our welfcire, 
he ha» stood by uiJ t<j the knt, — our prayer is tliat he may be 
rev/arded by tlie people of the State, and that his noble dee'ia be 
not forgotten by the authorities. Xever despairing but always 
liof>eful, we remember how lie performed his arduous duties during 
the dark days around and in front of Atlanta ; and when his regi- 
ment was called into action we always knew who was at its head- 
Asking nothing and receiving little, he stood by the regiment at all 
times, ever mindful of the interests of its officers and men. 

In parting with him our acknowledgment is, he is a gentleman, a 
liero and a soldier. His deeds do show either of these. 

Tnos. Hakwoou, OfuipUjAn. Wji.liam A. Gorr, fyv/rgecm. 

John Yit/juvuma), IA. mul Ao^t. E. h. WArx^jXEii, 2d Li^xt. 
Z. S. SwAS, (JojT/t/j/m. yi.KA:-iAyr S. PKixcHKrr, 2</ Z#. 



II. D, Faeqcass^js, C'aptmn. WAiiEEX G. Davis, I*^ Li^at. 

(^iiABLZH A. II0XT, (JiJ/[jt/i'm. ^ojcnuEii E, JjOusaud, Copt. 

fJoB KoY McGebckje, (hptam. Johs M. Sijaw, C'aptmn. 

Waeeek C. S. Babuox, Captain. Bkxjamis B. frva^v^, Cajptam. 

EOWAKD E. HOCBTAI.V, 1*^ Z^'^l*^. Da.VIKI. X. HuALLtTT. Co/J/taVa. 

■Jon.v R. Can-SOS, 1*< Lieut. -ions T. Eichakw-, 1*# Li(f>Mt. 

I). C. Hope, Qixo/rterm/Mt^r. Jlxich A. Fake, 1*^ Zt«t^. 

.Jou.v K. Cabs^/s, Captain. Olivee M. Yokk, 2<;? Lieut. 

J. M. EcsE. 

When Gen. Sprague was transferred to a different field, he wrote 
the following letter to Gen., then Col., Rusk. 

HKAlHiCAirrEBB 2d Bkigade, Ifrt J-T\'., 17th A. C, 
(near/ Washisgtos, D. C. ifoy Ztf^A, 186.5 
Deae Coi/jnel : — As I am ordered by the War Department to a 
distant field, in a few hours I sliall 1^ compelled to take leave of 
' 5o9 



4 O E N . J E R K M I A Jt M . E U S K . 

my old command. In doing so I feel that I shall separate from very 
many that are very dear to me, made so by being associated with 
them in common toils and danger. I cannot leave you, Colonel, 
without expressing my thanks for that hearty support and co-opera- 
tion which has ever characterized your actions and bearing in the 
field. You have been very much in command of your regiment, it 
has won a proud name, second to none that I know in our armies. 
You, by your faithful and untiring efibrts, have contributed largely 
to this. You are entitled to, and I hope will receive, the generous 
thanks of the Executive and the people of your State for your 
faithfulness to the troops entrusted to your care. Tiie able manner 
in which you have discharged every duty in the field entitles yon to 
the gratitude of all who love the cause in which you have served so 
well. 

Please accept, Colonel, my sincere wishes for your prosperity and 
happiness. Your Friend, J. "W. Speague, 

Brigadier- General. 

CoL. J. M. KusK, 25th "Wis. Vols. 

Such was Gen. Rusk as a soldier, as we find him recorded, and 
gather fi-om those who know his history. He is a brave, true and 
modest man. 

In September, 1865, the Eepublican State Convention of Wiscon- 
sin nominated the General for Bank Comptroller by acclamation. 
He was elected in the November following by upwards of 10,000 
majority. In 1867 he was again nominated and elected by the Ee- 
jniblicans of his State, and served the two terms in a most accepta- 
ble manner. During his second term the business of State banking 
having become nearly obsolete, by reason of the discriminations 
against it in the national banking law, the people passed an amend- 
ment to the State Constitution abolishing the office of Bank Comp- 
troller. So that he is the last bank comptroller of Wisconsin. 

The following editorial appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal 
o;i the occasion of General Rusk's final retirement from the office 
of bank comptroller: 

570 



J E R E M I A 1 



As a State officer he was thoroughly conversant with the la^v a.uf 
rule, pertaining to his department. In closing out old banks ho has 
saved the State much money. His suggestions concerning the Unal 
settlement of all bank accounts have been valuable. 

"The General is distinguished for his thoroughness in business 
matters, the absence of narrow prejudices in all things, a determin- 
ation to do what is fair, for his e.xcellent judgment and unswerving 
devotion to Eepublican principles. 

"In August, 1870, he was nominated by the Eepublicans of the 
Sixth Congressional District in Wisconsin as their candidate for 
representative in Congress ; and in November of the same year was 
elected by the largest majority given by any district of the State to 
Its representative. He is now serving his term in Congress 

" Gen. Eusk's post-office address is Viroqua, Vernon county V^Tis- 
eonsin. •" 

" In personal appearance he is taU, and of full physique ,• mustache 
and chin beard, full, smooth face, bearing the evidence of frankness 
and honor; candid and modest in conversation, he wins your confi- 
dence at &st sight. Men of sterling qualities wiU always have 
friends, and Gen. Eusk has many. His manner is quiet and void 
of pretense._ He has been a faithful and honest officer, as well in 
civil life as in military service." 

"Free from deceit his head, and fuU as free his heart." 
571 




-C^c, 



JAMES M. ASHLEY. 

w 

if does not im])air or further the political prospects of any of 
^^ her citizens. We have every reason to feel proud of our 
"self-made" men. Unaided talents hewing a pathway up 
the hill of life, is a spectacle far more gratifying than that presented 
by mediocrity pushed forward by the influence of wealth to positions 
in which its deficiencies are all the more glaringly exposed. And 
in writing of James M. Ashley, I write of a man who, thrown on 
his own resources when a mere boy — deprived of those social and 
educational advantages which are such powerful appliances of mod- 
em civilization — found, that it devolved upon his unaided exertions 
to solve the problem of his manhood — whether it would be passed 
in ignoble obscurity, or whether he would lead it to an honorable 
station in life. 

Bom on the 14th of November, 1824, in the State of Pennsyl- 
vania, he remained at home with his parents until he was nearly 
fifteen years of age. His mother was a woman of marked ability, 
fair culture and extraordinary executive power, and to her he is in- 
debted for all the rudimental education he obtained. His father 
was a clergyman and an educated man ; but traveling on circuits in 
the then frontier settlements of West Virginia, eastern Kentucky 
and southern Ohio, he was unable on the small compensation he 
received to give any of his children a collegiate education. At that 
time there were but few select schools in the localities named, and 
no public schools at all. 

Before he was fifteen, the subject of our sketch, mTich against the 

wishes of his parents, went forth into the world to seek support for 

573 



a JAMKS M. ASin.KY. 

liitusolf. On .1 "Wostorn rivor stoaniluwt ho obtained a situation ns 
cabin boy. Tho duties wore uiu'ongonial, but stern neoossity oom- 
pollod biin to niako tho bix'^t of n bad barjjaiu. In the intervals of 
rest fnMu his arduous and i>oorly rt^nuitod laboi-s, ho dovotod hini- 
solf to study, sooinjj iu oduoatiou a moans to ovorcoino the obsta- 
olos which besot his pathway. At this time, newsjiapers wore not 
so gt>noraUy oirouhUtni in tho West, aTid books wore not so lunnor- 
ous as thoy nowaro; but the lad never neglected an opportunity 
of tjottini; thoni, and when once in his possession, tlioy wei-o never 
n^limpiishod until ho had gleaned everything of value they con- 
tained. .\s a natund ooiisequence of this self-«tudy, it was not long 
betoiv his mental improvement tittod him for a more ivsponsible 
station than he had yet occupied. 

^Ir. Ashley turned his attention to the " art preservative of arts," 
as the bi\st o]HMnng he could obtain. Accordingly, he abandoned 
tho steamboat business, and ji-opairing to Portsmouth, Ohio, where 
his father had once i-esided, he entered a printing-office in that 
place. FixMU type-setting, which ho used merely as a stej^ping- 
stone, "Mr. Ashley wont into the editorial sanctutu. He became the 
editor of the 2\>rtmnyufh I^^mocrat and at>orwai-ds was engaged 
on tho Daib/ Disj^rh-^. In these pivitions he displayed s\ich marked 
ability and depth of thought in his oilitorials and contributions that 
his iKM-formancos in an intellectual and literary sense were regarded 
by his friends as a success, but tho pecuniary results were anything 
but llattoring, and ho was compelled to abandon tho enterj^rise and 
siH>k some other employment. At this time he was a nieniber of the 
democratic psirty, while that ptirt of Ohio in which ho resided was 
intensely AYliig. It is, therefore, not surprising that he failed in 
making his newspijx^r a tinancial success. Even to the present day 
it is up hill work with Democratic journalists in that locality, 
although Pon\ocrats .are now mw-o numerous, proportionately, than 
they were when Mr. Ashley was an editor. 

On leaving the e<litorial chfiir, Mr. Ashley entoroil tlie law office 
of 0. 0. Tracey, a distinguished lawyer of Southern Ohio, where he 
574 



1 



A S H J, K T. 



fetudied for the legal profesjion, and ia 1^49 wao ad-aitte-i to the 
l^r. lie fseems, ?iowever, to have only desired to obtaia a prac- 
f;al knowlcJgc of the law, for he never practice*! the profesaion, 
A» HOOD as he liad laid a^ide hia legal books, he engagf;/! in boaf. 
building, meeting with onJy nuxlerate sace&m. At length, in 1852. 
he Hettled in Toledo and engaged eacccsssfully in the wholesale 
drag business until bnrned out in the winter of 1><57 without 
insurance. It will be seen that wliat is remarkable in his early 
career is its ever clianging phaads. I have skjwn Mr, Ashley as a 
cabin boy, a printer, an c<litor, a lawyer, and a druggist. None but 
an American, and a self-ma^Ie man at that, endowed with a won- 
derful amount of energy and pluck, could liave adaptcl himself in no 
few yeare to such frequent and radical changes in business. There 
are many men who toil painfully at a single calling tlirongh lives 
of mLsfortunes, blind to, or obstinately ignoring, the feet tliat they 
have mistaken their vocation- Had the subject of this sketch fol- 
lowed the example of these men, it is not improbable that Ids days 
would have been spent in obscurity, clouded by failure*!, and that the 
world would never have heard <y£ him. But, with that intuition 
which has guided him through life, he was always able to foresee 
where his duty lay, and it was this intuitive perception, dire*,-ting 
and instructing his talents, whicli led him from the byways of pov- 
erty and olBcurity to the broad and more responsible road which 
secured him public prominewje. 

As a patriotic American, Mr. Ashley naturally felt a deep inter- 
est in the welfare of his country, and took an active part in the polit- 
ical questions of the flay. HLs political ideas coincided in the main 
with those of the Democratic party, except that he was radically 
anti-slavery. Much thought on the subject, ^nd a pers<^>nal knowl 
edge of tlie iastitution of slavery, gained by a residence of some 
years in the South, liad not only made him an abolitiom'st of the 
a<^lvanced school, but had also alienated him entirely from the De- 
mocTacy, as a ])arty organization. He was a member of the Pitts- 
burgh Convention, when the Republican yj>arty was firmly organ- 
575 



iroil, and l>v bis active iiartieipatiou in tlu* political movrments of 
the iIrv, soon bocaiue one of its im>st jironiinont ajul influential Knd- 
ei-s. In 185t) ho was u delegate to tlio National Republican Con- 
vention at riiiUulelpbia, which ni)niinatod l"^-eniont. In IS.'iS, be 
was nominated the Republican candidate for Kepresentativc in Con- 
jjivss tnini bis district, and was elected over his Democratic com- 
petitor, Mr. MungxMi. llo arrived in "Washington, a comparatively 
unknown uian, and began his Congressional caiver with the disad- 
vantages of having to compete with some of the n>ost gifted men of 
the nation, whoso reputations for brilliancy of oratory and profun- 
dity of thought wei-o well estabUshod, and upon whom the public 
attention was mainly directed. Still, there were important ques- 
tions before the country, and, as the then minority of Republicans 
were attacking the Democracy, on them, with great vigor and abil- 
ity, a fair field lay open to all men of talents to win honorable 
distinction. 

Mr. Ashley opposed the demands of the slave interest with ability 
and determination. During the exciting sessions of 1S59-60, he was 
foremost in resisting sUl the schemes of the slave-power, and he did 
not hesitate to warn tlio Southern membere that if they carried into 
etlect their threat of secession, it would be the duty of the North to 
eoeree them back into the Union. So marked and successful was his 
career during his first term in Oongre<s, that, at its expiration, he 
was unanimously re-nominated by his constituents, and wjis re-elect- 
ed, in 1S60, by an increased majority. Soon ivfter, the great rebel- 
lion broke out, and then it was that Mr. Asliley exhibited the ability 
which has made his name familiar to every student of our history. 
Every war n\eas\n"e of the Administration received his unquestion- 
ing support. It was sufficient that the authorities deemed it neces- 
s;u-y as ai\ aid in suppressing the rebellion — he advoc^ited it and 
pressed its passage. Much of his time was spent in the mihtnry 
hospitals, reMidering personal service's to the sick and wovnided i*>l- 
diers of th;> Union army. Indeed, his devotion to the patriotic Uicn 
who iniperilled their lives for tb^' preservation of the Republic is one 
r>7G 



JAMES M. ASULET. 



of the most honorable facts in the eventful puhlie career of Mr. 
Ashley. 

A man of the people, and springing from the people, it was to be 
expected! tliat Mr. Ashley would favor government by the masses 
to the fullest extent. ILn has always been opposed to the unre- 
strainwl rule of the majority, believing that the minority have rights 
which ought to be resjxjcted. The first speech ever delivered in 
Congress in belialf of minority representation, was made by him, 
and he reported a bill to the House, looking ixj the introduction of 
tliat idea in the Territories of the Union. In c<^^nnection with the 
lion. Lot M. Morrill, of Maine, he drew up and liad cliarge of the 
bill to aboUsh slavery in the District of Columbia. In the speech 
he delivered on tliLs question, he said : 

" A few years ago, one of freedom's distinguished oratfjrs startled 
the country by declaring tliat 'Congress Wl no more power to 
make a slave than to make a king.' If, then, there is, as I claim, 
no constitutional power in Congress to reduce any man or race to 
slavery, it certainly will not be claime<^l that Congress has the power 
to legalize such regulations as exist to-day, touching persons held as 
slaves in this District, by re-enacting the slave laws of ^Maryland, 
and thus doing by indirection what no sane man claims authority to 
do directly. I know it is claimed by some that, if Congress has 
power to abolish, it must necessarily have power to establish slavery. 
I will not insult the intelligence of this House by discassing such a 
proposition. If Congress could not constitutionally re-enact the 
slave laws of ilaryland for tliis District, then slavery could not exist 
even for a single hour after the cession of the territory became com- 
plete ; but whether slavery constitutionally existed in this District 
or not, tliat it does exist is a fact ; and, because it exists, and has 
existe^l, by the sufferance and sanction of the National Government 
for which the entire people of the United States are justly resiJonsi- 
ble, it is more than ever the imperative duty of this Congress to 
aMisli, at once and forever, so unnatural and unjastifiable a wrong. 
And, sir, if it be necessary to employ gold to do it, let gold be em- 
577 



JAMKS M. ASH 1.1! Y. 

ployed. Gold, which has i-orruptod statesmen, perverted jnstice, 
and enslaved men, can never bo more righteously used than when it 
is employed to re-establish justice and ransom slaves." 

Mr. Ashley continued at length in defence of the bill, arguing in 
favor of its justice to the oppressed slave, its advisability, and its 
jH)licy. His peroration, which was most eloquent, was as follows : 

"Mk. CuAiKM^Mf — The struggles and hopes of many long and 
weary years are centered in this eventful hour. The cry of the op- 
pressed — ' how long, O Lord ! how long V — is to be answered to-day 
by the American Congress. A sublime act of justice is now to be 
recoi-ded where it will never be obliterated, and, so far as the action 
of the Eoprcsentatives of the people can decrea it, the fitting words 
of the President, spoken in his recent special message, ' iNrriAXK ani> 
Emakoipate,' shall have a life co-equal with the Kepubh'c. God has 
set his seal upon these priceless words, and they, with the memory 
of him who uttered them, shall live in the hearts of the people for- 
ever. The golden morn, so long and so anxiously looked for by the 
fi-iends of freedom in the United States, has dawned. A second iia 
tional jubilee will henceforth be added to the calendai". The brave 
words heretofore uttered in behalf of humanity in this Hall, like 
' bread oist upon the watei-s,' are now ' to return after many days,' 
and find vindication of their purposes in a decree of freedom. The 
command of God, to let the oppressed go free, is declared to be cm- 
duty, not only by our patriotic President, but by both branches of 
our National Congress ; and let us hope that, from this time hence- 
forth and forever, this nation is never again to be humiliated and 
disgraced by being responsible for the existence and continuation of 
human slavery. ]S"o longer, within our national jurisdiction, where 
Congress has constitutional power to abolish it, shall slavery be tol- 
erated. The nation is to-day entering upon a policy which cannot 
be reversed ; and jnstice is vindicated, humanity recognized, and 
God obeyed.'' 

Not long after delivering the speech, of which the foregoing are 
extracts, Mr. Ashley had charge, in the House of Eepresentatives, 
578 



JAHES M. ASHLEY. 



of the Constitutional amendment abolishing slavery in the United 
States. During the great debate wliich preceded its adoption, ho 
delivered another oration on the subject of emancipation. Extracts 
would not do justice to it ; hence, we shall not quote the language. 
It was a speech of rare eloquence, aboxmding in lofty and philan- 
thropic sentiments, exhibiting a deep love of freedom and sympathy 
for the enslaved, and clothed in most felicitou-s language. It was 
the cap-stone of Mr. Ashley's eft'orts to destroy slavery, and not 
only^ extended his reputation, but also aided the cause of eman- 
cipation. 

We have indicated tliat, throughout the war, Mr. Ashley's course 
was eminently patriotic ; and such extracts as we have made from 
his speeches, aside from his reputation as a patriot, suffice to prove 
the fact. Remarkable, indeed, it is, that, as early as 1861, he fore- 
saw the political difficulties which would arise after the suppression 
of the rebellion in the South. He prepared, during the extra ses- 
sion of July, 1861, and presented to the Committee on Territories — 
of which he was the Cliairman — the very first measure of Recon- 
struction ever submitted to Congress. By direction of the Commit- 
tee, on the 12th of March, 1862, he reported his bill to the House, 
but the hour had not arrived for its passage. Mr. Ashley had 
merely anticipated what was to be inevitable six years later. On 
motion of Mr. Pendleton, of Ohio, the biU was laid on the table by 
a vote of 65 yeas to 56 nays. Tliis defeated it, and for several ses- 
sions aftei-wards the subject was not brought up again; but the 
ideas it contained, and the line of policy it represented, were em- 
bodied in the great Reconstruction laws which finally restored the 
Southern States to representation in the CouneilB of the Reijublic. 

Mr. Ashley crossed the continent and visited California in 1865. 
In response to an invitation from a large number of citizens, he de- 
h'vered an arldress at Piatt's Hall, in San Francisco, on the evening 
of the ITth of September, which the Alto, Califomiom pronounced 
" a great oration, splendid in its ability and most powerfol in its 
effects." 

579 



« .1AM V. S M . AS II 1, K Y. 

Wt> i'o\^y fn>m 77i<' /'.Wiiinif /hifHin tlio following; nilniirablc 
stntiMiiout of his viows on rivonstnii'lion. Ilo said, "tlint tlic only 
<|iiostion wliioli ooiild posisiiily divido tlio Kopiiblican fitntesmon of 
tlio nation n>i!j;lit ho hrictlv stalod. To hi,< mind the qnostion was 
simply this: ' W/i<if duriwj the war hut htcii, mid wIkU is iioio, the 
h'ifdl .ifdhui of t/u- I<if<' irhd Stuti'i^f TIi^ answoivd hy sayiiip;, 'I 
hold that, when tlio poo]>lo of tlio thirteen (\)loiiios adopted our pres- 
ent national Constitution, the old Confederation was abolished and 
the Dnited States boeamo a nation; that tlio national Constitution 
"is the supremo law of the land, aiiylhiiiii in tlio laws or judicial 
decisions of the States to the contrary notwithstanding;" that the 
national Government, thus created is clothed with full powers for 
its solf-pra^ervation ; that tho Govorninent of the United States is 
a government of the people, and not a govermnont of thirty -six sov- 
ereign, independent States ; but a government of the people residing 
in tho several States which have State governmeuts, organized in 
suboixlination to and in conformity with the national Constitution ; 
that the people who mnintaiii such State governments are constitu- 
tionally clothed with tlu> power of governing tho nation in the na- 
tional Congress.. 

'"1 hold th;it when the people of the States recently in rebellion 
confederated together in violation of the natiomJ Constitution, and 
oi-gani/.ed and maintained by force of arms a f//' /dcA) hostile gov- 
ernment, and the rebellion assumed proportions formidable enough 
to claim, and to have concedetl to it by tho United States and by 
the gre)\t powers of Knn^po, belligerent rights, from that hour con- 
stitutional governments in each of the States so confederated to- 
gether legally cesvsed to exist ; and nntil State governments are or- 
ganized in each of said States, in subonlinatiou to the national 
Constitution, and recognized by the Congress of the United States, 
tJiere can be no constitutional State governments in such States. 

" ' I hold that whenever the people residing in any one or more 
of the States neglect, or refuse to maintain constitutional State gov- 
ernments, whether it be by abolishing their State Constitutions and 

5m 



JAMES M. ABRLKT. 



rcfuBing to ordain new ones, or l»y confederating together with oilier 
States or foreign powers to malce war ui)on the nation, from that 
monoent the governing power, whether for national or State pur- 
poses, which was lodged by the national Constitution and laws of 
file United States in the people of such State or States, terminates 
ntid remains in the people residing in the States which maintain 
constitutional governments. In other words, that the sovereignty 
of the nation cannot be destroyed or impaired within the territorial 
jurisdiction of the United States by tlie action or the refasal to act 
of any one or more of the States. 

"'I hold that the people of any State may, in utter disregard of 
their constitutional obligations, abolish, in fact, their State Constitu- 
tions and governments whenever tlioy see fit to do so; and they 
may refuse to establish otliers; and that there is no way in which a 
majority of the people in any State can he compelled to maintain a 
State government or to* elect Senators or Representatives to Con- 
gress or to vote for Presidential Electors. Nevertheless the sover- 
eignty of the United States over the territory and people within 
such State remains unimpaired ; the laws of the United States are 
Iffgally in full force, and the allegiance of every citizen residing 
witliin the territorial limits of the nation, whether in organize^l or 
unorganized States, is due to the United States, whatever may be 
the action of a majority of the people in any State. 

" ' I hold that no State can, either by legislative act or by a con- 
vention of the people, conMltutionall/y pass an ordinance of secession, 
or ordain a new State Constitution and government hostile to the 
United States ; that if euch ordinances of secession are passed, and 
iostile State governments organized, they are illegal, and the citizens 
of the United States residing within the limits of such States do not 
owe allegiance to snch government; but if a majority of the consti- 
tuted electors of a State unite with its constituted authorities and 
pass an ordinance of secession or ordain a new State government by 
abolishing their old State Constitution and adopting a new one 
unknown to the Constitution, and attempt to maintain such revolu- 
581 



10 J AMES M . A SHLE Y. 

tionary government by force, tliey do iu fact destroy their legal 
State government.' 

" Mr. Ashley made an argument in favor of these propositions, 
which at the time commanded the general attention of the leading 
men of the country. 

"In closing it, he said: 'All I demand in the reorganization of 
State governments in the rebel States is justice — justice alike to 
loyal white and loyal black — ^justice to the late rebels also — justice 
tempered with mercy, if you will, but nevertlielcss justice, that jus- 
tice which secures the personal rights of all by placing in the hands 
of each the ballot — the only sure weapon in a Republic of protection 
and defence to the poor man, whether white or black. To me the 
ballot is the political stone, " cut out of the mountain without liands, 
which shall fill the whole earth, and break every yoke and let the 
oppressed go free." "Whoever shall fiiU on this stone shall be 
broken, but on whomsoever it shall M\ it will grind him to 
powder." ' " 

From what we have said and quoted above, it will be seen that 
Mr. Ashley could not have been, at any time, in sympathy with 
President Johnson's policy of restoration. It is a fact that, as early 
as June, 1865, he sounded the alarm that aroused the Eepublican 
party to opposition to the President. At that time the President, 
who had not yet more than initiated the programme which after- 
wards evoked the hostility of his party friends. In a speech deliv- 
ered at Toledo, Ohio, in the month stated, Mr. Ashley said : " I re- 
cently went to "Washington to present what I conceive are the views 
of the earnest men of the country to the President. In the inter- 
view which I had with him — ^with other gentlemen and an inter-. 
■ view with him alone — the President assured me that he earnestly 
desired to carry out the wishes of the Union men of the country. 
I asked him to withdraw the amnesty proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, 
80 that the rebels who had committed treason since its issue should 
not have the benefit of its promises or provisions. I asked him to 
withdraw it so that these rebels could not demand, as a right, the 
5S2 



JAMES M. ASHLEY, 11 

benefit of that proclamation. I asked him to do so because I be- 
lieved that the executive has no power to issue a pardon in advance 
of the crime committed. We succeeded. 

"Every condition the earnest men asked for was put into the new 
proclamation. Upon only one question did we differ, and that was 
on the question whether, upon the reconstruction or reorganization 
of the rebel governments, the colored soldiers and colored loyal 
citizens should be allowed to vote, or whether, because of the color 
of their skin, they were to be excluded' from this privilege. "While 
professing to desire, in his interview with us, that all men should 
vote, without distinction of color, the President embarrassed him- 
self and us with this idea — that the States which had been in rebel- 
lion are still States — or, in other words, that the governments of 
these States were not destroyed, but were only in abeyance, and 
that when the rebellion was suppressed, the laws and constitution of 
said States revived, and that neither he nor Congress had any au- 
thority to prescribe the qualification of electors in those States. I 
replied to him by saying that while I had no disposition to press 
any theory of my own — willing as I was to subordinate my own 
opinions to the accomplishment; of the great purpose in view — I said 
to him frankly, that his were in conflict with two decisions made 
by the Supreme Court — one by Chief Justice Taney, and the other 
by Chief Justice Chase. I said to him, according to the dicta of 
these judges, that he could as readily enfranchise the black man 
as disenfranchise the white, for that, under the constitution, he 
had no power but the military power to say who should or who 
should not vote at the preliminary elections for Reconstruction ; that 
if he could exclude one man as a voter under the constitution, he 
could exclude ten thousand, and that if he could admit any one 
man to vote he could admit all loyal men without regard to color. 
I need not tell you what the answer was to that. T merely said to 
him that the anti-slavery party had destroyed the old whig and de- 
mocratic parties ; that the wrecks of these parties were now scat- 
tered and strewn along the political coast, and that we intended, 
583 



12 J A M E S M . A 8 U L E T. 

under God, to crush any party t)r any man who stood up against 
univei'sal enfranchisement. 

" And, gentlemen, I went to Virginia on invitation, and remained 
among the people until I became satisfied that under the pro- 
gramme foreshadowed by the Executive the rebels would take pos- 
session of the new State government, and I said that there was no 
way of escaping from the dilemma unless the President called Con- 
gress together. The State is now completely in the hands of men 
who, forty days ago, were in rebellion against the government ; and 
this will be so in every rebel State. They will assume the i-ebel 
debt as part of the State debt, and enact a system of laws which, 
even if the constitutional amendment be adopted, vnW practically 
enslave the black man. What is our duty under the circumstances ? 
I would counsel our friends to forbearance and kindness, but firm- 
ness ; and then, with the liberal press of the country to sustain us, 
we may bring the adpiiuistration of President Johnson to the right 
point, as the anti-slavery men brought President Lincoln, after a 
contest of nearly two yeai-s." 

The hopes entertained by Mr. ii^hley were not realized. Presi- 
dent Johnson was less tractable than Mr. Lincoln, and would not 
yield to Congress. The contest between the two branches of the 
government, approached a crisis, when, on the 7th of January, 1867, 
Mr. Ashley impeached the President of high crimes and misdemeau- 
ore, his speech, which was one of remarkable vigor and eloquence, 
creating a great sensation throughout the country. His resolution 
of impeachment was referred to a Committee, which, on the 25th 
of November following, reported favorably upon it ; but the House, 
by a large majority, defeated it. Subsequently, as is well known. 
President Johnson was impeached ; and whatever may be thought 
of the policy-wisdom of Congress in impeaching him, to Mr. Aslilcy 
must be given the credit of inspiring his colleagues with the bold- 
ness necessary for establishing the most significant precedent known 
in the history of the United States. 

On the 30th of May, 1868, Mr. Asiiloy delivi-iod in the House of 
584 



JAMES M. ASHLEY. 13 

Representatives a speech, which at tlic time commanded general 
attention in favor of an auiendmcnt to the national Constitution, 
providing for the nomination and election of a President by a direct 
vote of the people of the United States by ballot. "VVhcu introduc- 
ing the subject, he said : 

" The proposition which I now send to the Clerk's desk to be 
read, provides that the President of tlie United States shall bo 
elected for but a single term of four years, and proposes the aboli- 
tion of the office of Vice President. If adopted, it also secm-es the 
abolition of the present system of appointing presidential electors, 
as the Legislatures of the several States may provide, and makes it 
impossible for the election of a President to devolve, as now, on the 
House of Representatives, but provides that in case of death, resig- 
nation, or removal of the President from office, that the two Houses 
in joint convention shall elect to fill the vacancy, each Senator and 
Representative having one vote. Its adoption will relieve the people 
of the despotism of party caucuses and party conventions, and there- 
after commit the nomination and election of President to a direct 
vote of the people by ballot. The Clerk whH please read." 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Joint Resolution proposing an Amendment to the Constitution 
OF the United States. 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States 
of America, in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both Houses concur- 
i-ing,) That the following be proposed as an amendment to said Consti- 
tution, which, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the 
several States, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of said 
Constitution, to wit : 

Amend section throe of article one, by striking out clauses four axid 
five, which read : 

" The Vice President of the United States shall bo President of the 
Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

"The Senate shall choose their other officers and also a President 
pro temjinre, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall ex- 
ercise tlie office of President of the United States. " 

And insert the following : 

"The Senate shall choose their own presiding and other officers." 
585 



14 JAMES M. ASHLEY. 

In article two, section four, strike out tlie words "Vice President." 

Amend section one, article two, by strikinpr out the words "together 
with the Vice President chosen for the same term;" so that it will read : 

Tlie executive power shall be vested iu a President of the United 
States of ^Vinerica; he shall hold his office during the term of four years, 
and be elected as follows : 

In lieu of clauses two, three, four and six of article two and of article 
twelve of the amendments, insert the following : 

The qualified electors of the United States shall meet at the usual 
places of holding elections in their respective States and Territories on 
the first Monday in April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and seventy-two, and on the first Monday in April every four 
years thereafter, under such rules and regulations as the Congress may 
by law prescribe, and vote by ballot for a citizen qualified under this 
Constitution to be President of the United States, and the result of such 
election in each State and Territory shall be certified, sealed, and for- 
warded to the seat of Government of the United States in such manner 
as the Congress may by law direct. 

The Congress shall be in session on the third Monday in May after 
such election, and on the Tuesday next succeeding the third Monday in 
Slay, if a quorum of each House shall be present, and if not. inunediatoly 
on the assemblage of such quorum, the Senators and members of the 
House of Representatives shall meet in the Representative Chamber in 
joint convention, and the President of the Senate, in the presence of the 
Senators and Representatives thus assembled, shall open all the returns 
of said election and declare the result. The person having the greatest 
number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be 
a majority of the whole number of votes cast ; if no person have such 
majority, or if the person having such majority decline the office or die 
before the counting of the vote, then the President of the Senate shall 
so proclaim; whereupon the joint convention shall order the proceed- 
ings to be officially published, stating particularly the number of votes 
given for each person for President. 

Another election shall thereupon take place on the second Tuesday 
of October next succeeding, at which election the duly qualified electors 
of the United States shall again meet at the usual places of holding elec- 
tions iu their respective States and Territories, and vote for one of the 
persons then living having the highest number of votes, not exceeding 
five on the list voted for as President at the preceding election in April, 
and the result of such election in each State and Territory shall be cer- 
tified, sealed and forwarded to the seat of the Government of the United 
States as provided by law. 

On the third Tuesday in December after such second election, or so 
soon therciifter as a quorum of each House shall be present, the Senators 
and members of the House of Representatives shall again meet in joint 
convention, and the President of the Senate, in presence of the Senators 

r^s6 



JAMES M. AS HLET. 15 

and Representatives thus assembled, shall open all the returns of said 
election and declare the person having the highest number of votes duly 
elected President for the ensuing term. 

No person thus elected to the office of President shall thereafter be 
eligible to be re-elected. 

In case of the removal of the President from office by impeachment, 
or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and du- 
ties of the said office, the same shall devolve temporarily on the Presi- 
dent of the Senate, if there be one; if not, then on the Speaker of tlio 
House of Representatives, if there be one; and if not, then the member 
of the esecutivo department senior in years shall act as President. If 
there be no officer of an executive department, then the Senator senior 
in years shall act until a successor is chosen and qualified. 

If Congress be in session at the time of the death, disability, or re- 
moval of the President, the Senators and Representatives shall meet in 
joint convention under such rules and regulations as the Congress may 
by law prescribe, and proceed to elect by viva voce vote a President to 
fill sucli vacancy. Each Senator and Representative having one vote, a 
quorum for this purpose shall consist of a majority in each House of the 
Senators and Representatives duly elected and qualified, and a majority 
of all the votes given shall be necessary to the choice of a President. 
The person thus elected as President shall discharge all the powers and 
duties of said office until the inauguration of the President elected at 
the next regular election. 

If the Congress be not in session, then the acting President shall 
forthwith issue a proclamation convening Congress "within sixty days 
after the death or disability of the President. 

On the assembling of a quorum in each House the Senators and Rep- 
resentatives shall meet in joint convention and elect a President as 
herein before provided. 

The last set speech delivered by Mr. Ashley in tlie House has 
been regarded by his friends as one of the ablest and far-reaching in 
its proposed radical change of the Government of any delivered by 
him during his term of service. It was made on the 13th of Feb- 
ruary, 1869, in favor of an amendment to the Constitution — which 
he proposed — abolishing the veto, appointing and pardoning power 
of the President; and limiting the term of service of tlie Supreme 
Judges, as also their jurisdiction, and making them ineligible to any 
other political office under the Government. He contended that 
the " rock" on which the nation would eventually be broken, was 
executive power. "Ifwc would maintain a democratic Ivepublic," 
537 



16 JAMES M. ASHLKT. 

lie said. " the one-man power in the Government must be abolished," 
and "equitable representation secured in Congress for the minor- 
ity." His text was, " The Executive and Judicial power of the 
nation has increased, is increasing, and rmist be diminished." 

In o])ening this speech, he said, " Mr. Ohai/rmmi, I am a firm 
believer in tlie necessity of the propositions which I make for the 
abolition of the kingly prerogatives of the President, and for a 
modification of the veto power ; for selecting each of the officers of 
the Executive Departments by a joint vote of the two Houses of 
Congress; and providing for the mode of appointing and the man- 
ner in which all appointees shall be removed from office ; for limit- 
ing the term of service of Judges of the Supreme Court, as also 
their jurisdiction ; for making them, after their appointment, ineli- 
gible to any office under the Government ; except, perhaps, foi-eign 
embassadorships ; and for retiring them on such pay as Congress 
may deem to be just and proper. No less important, it seems to me, 
is the question of appointing United States Senators by a direc- 
vote of the qualified electors of each State by ballot, instead of 
electing them, as now, by the Legislatures of the several States ; and 
last, though not the least, the necessity of securing to the minority 
an equitable voice in the administration of the Government. To 
these several propositions I invite the considerate attention of all 
who recognize the fact that the whole power of the Government is 
gradually but surely passing into the hands of the President and the 

Supreme Court." " After the important questions growing 

out of the late rebellion are permanently settled, and the question 
of citizenship suffi-age is disposed of, by the adoption of the constitu- 
tional amendment now before us, I cannot permanently affiliate 
with any party which, as an oi-ganization, proposes to maintain the 
kingly and dangerous prerogatives now conceded to the President 
by custom and usage. If we are to contimte the Presidential office 
at all, it must be simply as an Executive and as no part of the law- 
making power. The duly of the President must be strictly limited 
to the execution of the law. Tlic veto power, the appointing power, 
OSS 



JAMES M. ASHLEY. 17 

and the power of removal at pleasure and without cause, are all 
kingly prerogatives and at war with the theory of a republican and 
democratic Government. As the national life is born of the will 
of the people, so the legislative representation of that will must be 
in the national Congress. In all governments the ultimate power 
must somewhere have a lodgment. In a republic it is safest in the 
hands of the people's representatives. The nearer this ultimate 
power is to the people, the more directly and easily it can be moulded 
and controlled by them." 

" An absolute power which is above and superior to the people, 
is a despotism." Therefore he said that " all attempts to maintain 
the domination of the Executive over the Legislative department of 
the Government must be defeated, and all efforts to clothe the Exec- 
utive with new prerogatives must be met by pronijit, vigorous and 
organized resistance, and to this great work I shall devote whatever 
of political influence I may have." 

It will thus be seen that Mr. Ashley is from conviction opposed 
to the one-man power in Government, if not absolutely opposed to 
the continuance of the presidential office. In fact, he says in this 
speech, that " If the question were now submitted to me whether to 
continue the Executive office with the power now lodged in the 
hands of the President, or abolish the office altogether, I would vote 
to abolish it." Such are his views of the overshadowing danger to 
be apprehended from presidential power. 

The following is the amendment which he proposed touching the 
Supreme and District Courts of the United States : 

The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Su- 
preme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time 
to time ordaiii and establish. The judges both of the SupromR and Dis- 
trict Courts shall hold their offices for twenty years, provided that no 
judge shall act as a member of the Supreme nor of any District Court 
after he shall have reached tlie age of seventy. After their appointment 
and qualification, they shall be ineligible to any except a judicial office. 
They shall at stated times receive for their services a compensation 
which shall not be diminished during their continuation in office. After 
the expiration of the term of service of each judge of the Supreme or of 
589 



18 JAMKS M. A SHI. ICY. 

M\\ District Court of tho United St«tos, tlie Congrt>ss slinll by law pro- 
vido sucli annual oouiponsntion duriui? life, as they may deem proper 
tor oftob retiring Judge, whioh oompensation shtvll not bo diminished." 

Sinco this amcndiuoMt was proposed, Congi-oss has praoticnlly 
adopted that part of it which provides for tho a'tiremeiit of judges 
after they reach tho age of seventy on a pension during life. 

In order to prevent hereafter the Supreme or tlie District Courts 
of tho United States being moulded into poHtical and partisan tri- 
bunals, as in tho dnv-s of tJio Dred Scott decision, Mr. Ashley pro- 
poses that the judges shall be ineligible to any politicjil office under 
the national (.Tovernment. 

On this question ho sjud : " J//*. C/iairm<i>u it is a sad sight to 
see such a body, as the Supreme Court ought to be, with one-thinl 
of its niembei-s sleeping upon the bench and dying with age, and 
another thii-d crazed with tho glitter of the pivsidency. I need 
not say how utterly this condition of body and mind untits men for 
the pivper discharge of the judici.-il otiice. If there is one body of 
men in this country luoro than another who ought to be financially 
i-enioved fiviu temptation, and intellectually to be clear and un- 
clouded, as well as free from all partizan ambition, it is the mem- 
bers of the Supivme Court." '' Our experience with this branch of 
the Government," he continued, "has been a sjid one. I will not 
attempt to gi^ into a history of its usurpations, its perversion of law, 

its criminal injustice, its jxilitical chicanery The people have 

been compelleil moi-e than onco to disivganl and reverse its infa- 
mous and luijust decisioiis, and they must bo prepared to do so 
ag:\in. They were not long in comprehending the extent of the 
danger of the Drod Scott usurpation. They knew that the power 
which had the concoiliHi right to pass without apj>eal on the ci>usti- 
tutionality of the nation's laws, wouJd S(km b<'conu th<' nation's mas- 
tcr. If this doctrine could have obtained, the sovereignty of tho 
nation would, sooner or later, have been nsurpetl by the national 
Judiciary. Congivss might have enacted laws, but the Court would 
have annulkxl them at pleasure. Tiianlcs to the intelligence and 
590 



JAM K S M . A 8 II L 10 Y. 10 

virtuo of the pecipli;, it reepiiivtl but I'cw ycui'ri tu overcome the Divd 
Scott decision, and break in pieces the ebony imago of shivery whicli 
tliis 'august tribunal' set up and demanded the nation shouhl 
worship." 

I caunot close thin slcetch without quoting from one of the L-ist 
speeches delivered by Mr. Ashley in Congi'ess. It was a tribute t(' 
Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, one of his most intimate and most 
cherished personal political friends. The language is ineffably touch- 
ing and eloquent. After referring to the long list of American 
patriots who had died in the service of their country, he went on : 
" With this grand army of unselfish patriots, his cateinporaries and 
co-laborers, we have laid down to rest all that is mortal of our friend 
in the bosom of his beloved Pennsylvania. The benediction of mil- 
lions followed him to his tomb, and to-day, in the free home of every 
black man, and of all men who love liberty, there is sincere sorrow 
and mourning. Never again in these council-balls will he deliberate 
with the people's representatives, nor awaken the nation from its 

lethargy by his genius and wonderful power Through some 

of the most eventful years in our history, I have been intimately 
associated with him on this floor. During all tliat time, which 
included the darkest hours in the nation's life — hours which tested 
the constancy and courage of men — he bore himself with such 
unquestioned fidelity to the cause of human freedom, as to com- 
mand even the respect of political opponents, and the cordial en- 
dorsement of all liberty-loving men Mr. Speaker, though 

death come never so often, he casts, at the portals of the tomb, 
shadows ever new and mysterious, and ever and always hath for the 
living his admonitions and his lessons. By the side of the grave 
we all realize that there are voices whispering to us out of the 
shadowy silence beyond the river. In such an hour we see with 
the natui-al eye, ' as through a glass darkly ;' but we have the prom- 
ise that, if faithful, we shall see ' face to face.' As thercHs no race 
of men without the idea of God and a future life, so, in the presence 
of death, it is natural for all to pause and think of the life beyond. 
591 



aU JAM KS M. AS 11 I. KY. 

' Mr. S{>cakor, thoio nro moments in tlio expericnco of all when 
we caimot w)nvey to other hearts the emotions of our own. To me 
such a moment is the present. So many reminiscences are crowd- 
ing upon me, and so many wonderful scenes in which our departed 
friend was aTi actor, are passing as a panorama before me, that I feel 
how sliort I should come of doing them or him justice, were I to 
dwell upon them. No man who loves his country, and passed 
through tlioso scenes in these halls, can ever forget them. AVhen I 
tirst entered this House, ten yeai-s ago, Mr. Stevens was one of the 
lirst to take me by the hand and welcome me. From that day, until 
the day of his death, ho was my friend, and of^eu my adviser and 
counsellor. However often I ditVored with him — as I often did — 
there was one question about which we never diflered — the question 
of the necessity of the immediate and uitconditional abolition of 
slavery. Of the practicability and justice of destroying slavery he 
never doubted. I am thankful that he was spared to witness the 
end of that indescribable villainy. I rejoice to know that, as the 
gates of the eternal world opened up before him, he was permitted 
to look back upon the land he loved and nowhere behold the foot- 
prints of a single slave. Because of his unwavering fidelity to the 
poor bondsmen, who, in the presence of a nation of oppressor, were 
manacled and powerless and dumb, I came to venerate him ; and, 
because I venerated him, I come to-day to cast a garland upon his 
tomb. In this seliish world there is nothing which so strongly 
enlists my sympathies, and so much commands my admiration, as a 
heroic and uuseltish life spent in the interests of mankind. To me 
it is the most touching and bejiutiful of human struggles. 

"In this impressive hour, while reviewing his heroic and unseltish 
acts, let us renew our vows of tidelity to the great priuciples which 
he so long, so ably, and so faithfully maintained. Let us here, and 
now, pledge our lives anew to the cause of human liberty and 
hunum pn>gress, resolving that no obstacles nor selfish interest shall 
cause us to falter, so that, when we descend to the tomb, the bono- 
502 



J A M E S M . A 8 H L E Y. 5J1 

dictions of mankind .shall bloss us, as they now bless liim, for whom 
we nriourn, and it shall be said of us, as it was said of hirn, 
' He hath not live<l in vain.' " 

Mr. Ashley served five tenns ,in Conf^ess. He was nominated 
by the RepuHicaas in his district for a sixth term, but lost the elec- 
tion, after an exciting contest. Subsequently President Grant ap- 
pointed him Governor of Montana Territory', a position, the dnties 
cf which he performed with signal ability and success. His message 
of the date of December 11, 1869, to the Territorial Legislature, is 
a statesman-like document and a State paper showing a high order 
of executive talent. We extract the following on the Fifteenth 
Amendment : 

" I congratulate you upon the fact, now concede^l, that the na- 
tional Constitution will soon be so amended as to conform to our 
new condition as a nation. The great privilege of the ballot will 
thus be secured by national authority to every citizen of the United 
States of mature years, whether native or foreign bom, white or 
black. This welcome consummation secures the triumph in our 
Government of the true Democratic idea. In conferring the privi- 
lege of the ballot, the equal rights of all men are recognized, and 
the Government becomes the agent of the citizen, instead of his 
master. Every citizen thus enfranchised, has placed in his hands 
the most formidable weapon of protection and defense known to a 
Republican government. Experience teaches us that the ballot 
gives every man dignity and power, and all know that its proper 
use will secure him justice and a government administered in the 
interest of civilization and peace. It becomes our duty to conform 
our laws to the national Constitution. I therefore recommend that 
our election law, which prescribes the qualification of electors, be 
amended by copying the exact words of the Fifteenth Amendment. 
"Whatever difiFerences there may be as to its true interpretation, it 
will eventually be judicially determined, and thus all exciting ques- 
tions touching the qualification of citizen electors in States and 
Territories will practically pass from the political arena." 
593 



'23 J A M E 3 M . A S H L K r. 

On retiring from the gubernntorial ebair, lie returned to private 
life, and occnpieil his time in pei-sonal pursnit^s, until recently, when 
ho was appointed to an important position connected with tlie admin- 
istration of Indian Affairs. We feel certain that he will bring to his 
new duties the same energy and devotion to the public service that 
has characterized his past career. 

504 



WILLAKD BULLAED. 

BY GEN-EBAIi JOHN ■WATTS DE PETBTZB. 

":£ now come to a self-made man, in the strictest sense 
of the word, one who has risen to highly responsible 
^^J^i" positions by sheer merit, or rather intrinsic worth, with- 
out genius, without accident, simply by faithful service, and by 
justifying the confidence of his superiors ; a brave soldier, a true 
friend, a devoted aide-de-camp, an honest politician, an energetic 
executive, and a thorough administrator. 

Brevet Major "Willard Bollard, the subject of this sketch, 
Acting Collector of the 32d District, — the largest in the United 
States as regards the amount of internal revenue collected — was 
bom at Roxbury, Mass., on the 26th November, 1834. A 
machinist by profession, he became a proficient, and was brought 
to New Tork in 1859, to take charge of gutta-percha works at 
Astoria. 

Regardless of his future, he forgot self in country when the 
" Slaveholders' Rebellion " became an accomplished fact, enlisted 
in Captain Martin Willis' Company, of Charles K. Graham's 74th 
K. Y. Volunteers, oth Excelsior, which was raised on Long Island 
out of the 15th N. Y. State Infantry. He was at once appointed 
Ist Sergeant, but displayed so much administrative and executive 
ability that he was made Acting-Regimcntal-Quartermastcr, and 
continued to discharge the duties of that ofiicc during the whole 
time that the Regiment was organizing at Camp Scott, on Staten 
Island. 

"When six companies went to the front, such was the confidence 



2 W II. I. A UP \-l l.l.AUll. 

iviH>»od in his jiuliiinont, iutoirrity, ami dotonuin;Uii>n. tliat ho was 
lolt behind to couiploto tho oi-ganizatiou of the ivjiiniont. He 
acted so judioioiislv, that when tho work was doni\ his CoKwel, 
altorward Brigadiov-Gonoral and Pivvet Major-Gonoral Charles K. 
Graham, deehmxl that " if thei-e had not been a l>ulhud tliere 
would not have been a 5th Kxeolsior."' 

W'^hile the Kegimont was lyius; at Liverpool Point, in Lower 
Miiryland, he was appointed, on the ilst October, lSi?l, 2d-Lien- 
tenant, and worked out an idea which may be said to have 
been the jimt ^t-nn of a Corps-Badge. The ollieers desired to pre- 
sent a testimonial of their appreciation to their colonel, and he 
suggosteil a Koinau V« indicative of the Mh Excelsior, set with 
five diamonds, repix^?cnting the number of regiments constituting 
the Sickles Brigade. 

In his ivgiment's first battle (that of Willisunsburg)— though not 
its first engagtuuent — as 2d-Lientenant he commanded his company 
with distinguishevl bravery and ability. 

At\er this siuiguinary cvnillict, the idea embodied in the testimo- 
nial above refernxi to, through him assumed a fuller development. 
Feeling that there should be some distinctive mark to denote the 
officers who weiv actually present, he designed a badge, whose 
form iilterwani became that of the Third Corps badge, that is, a 
lozengi^ or diamond, pendent from five oJasj^s, whose snpjK>rting- 
pin was a Maltese cross. The reverse of the lozenge bore the 
officer's nimie, and the obvers^e of the clasp the nimibers of the 
Excelsior regiments whith passed through this " baptism of fire." 
This »\ssiHuation was to the present Thinl Army Corps Union (the 
first smd most caivfully guardetl of its kind in the country), tlie 
embryv\ as the Excelsior Willi.«jmsburg badgv^ was to all subsequent 
ones. 

During the Peninsular campaign, Bulhird serveil botlt as qnartex- 

master and iu command of his cinupany ; ajid at Ilarrisou's L:md- 

ing, Tth August, Wivs apiK>iutetl adjut;mt of the regiment. In the 

latter capacity, he made the Pope oamjvugn, and when his colonel, 

£96 



WILLARD BULLARD. 3 

29tli Nov., 1862, was made Brigadier-General, Willard Bullard 
fbllow(!d liim as his confidential aide-de-camp. 

Prostrated by a severe attack of the James River fever, he wsis 
not present at Fredericksburg, but in the campaign and battle of 
Chancellorsville, he performed the most efficient service on the 
rttalf of the 1st Brigade, 2d Division, 3d Army Corps. At Gettys- 
burg he was again in the fore front of the battle at the " bloody 
Peach Orchard," and was severely wounded by a musket bullet 
through the left thigh above the knee. He was carried off the 
field at the same time with his Corps commander who had lost his 
right leg in the same locality. A few minutes afterward his Briga- 
dier was shot down, grievously wounded, and made prisoner. For 
his gallantry in this action ho was breveted Captain. 

Wlien Graham, on his return from Libby Pi-ison, was sent to 
take command of the " Naval Brigade," Bullard accompanied him ; ■ 
acted as Aid and Ordnance ofiicer at Norfolk ; and distinguished 
himself greatly in all the operations on the James Eiver, particu- 
larly by capturing a signal station, and obtaining information by a 
reconnoissance far into the interior, which greatly facilitated the 
ascent of the flotilla which secured City Point. For this he was 
breveted Major. lie was on board the flag-ship " Chamberlain " 
when under the tremendous fire which sunk the leading gunboat, 
"Samuel Brewster," when the "Naval Brigade" was trying to 
pass Fort Clifton on the Appomattox, and by silencing that bat- 
tery enable the troops upon the other side of the river to got up to 
Petersburg, wliither the flotilla were endeavoring also to force their 
way. For his coolness and gallantry .on this occasion he was 
recommended for the brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel, and it was a 
source of great regret to General Sickles that the delay occasioned 
by his absence at the South lost his trusted subordinate this 
merited honor. 

Few ofiicers ever presented stronger testimonials for promotion 
than the Major. His Brigadier, Graham, testifies to his " zeal and 
activity ;" his " Divisionary," Birney, to " his integrity and capa- 
597 



4 WILLARD BULLAUD. 

bility;"' his Corps-Commander, Sickles, to his "marked ability 
and zeal in the field, his intelligence and method in executive duty, 
his most reliable integrity in all transactions." Benj. F. Butler, 
Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the James, qualifies him as 
" an efficient and accomplished officer, such as are much needed." 

After the war, Major Bullurd entered into politics, and in a 
closely-contested local election in 18G5, displayed great sagacity, 
and in the still hotter congressional and gubernatorial contest in 
1866, even greater capacity. 

On the 4th of April, 1867, he sailed for China, and after a fear- 
fully tempestuous passage in the clipper " Samuel Eussel" reached 
Ilong Kong on the 2d of July. He visited Macao, Canton, Yoko- 
hama, and went into Jeddo before it was opened. Keturning, he 
crossed the Pacific, in the second trip of the Colorado, the first 
American steamer ever run on those waters, to San Francisco, and 
by the Isthmus to New York, reaching home the 9th of October, 
Iiaving completed the circuit of the world, and visited numerous 
important places in the space of sis months. 

In 1868, he became deeply interested in the " Soldiers' Business 
and Messenger Co.," and developed a talent for business as new to 
himself and friends, which saved all that was saved from that 
unfortunate organization, that promised such large 2:)rofits to stock- 
holders and benefits to the soldiers, for whose employment it was 
started. 

In the Grant presidential campaign Bullard took a very active 
and prominent jiart, and assisted largely in organizing the "Boys 
in Bhie," of which his old commander, Graham, was chief marshal, 
and as marshal of the division representing his congressional dis- 
trict, he led four hundred veterans in the grand New York delega- 
tion to Philadelphia. 

Major Bullard is a very effective and spirited political orator. 

If not what the polished would style eloquent, he possesses that 

natural eloquence which has a telling effect on the masses, who, 

after all, wield the political power of this country. What is more, 

598 



WILLARD BULLARD. 5 

he developed very rapidly in this line, and was eagerly sought 
after to address mass meetings in all the towns in the. vicinage oi 
this city, which he stirred to the highest enthusiasm. 

General Pleasonton no sooner became acquainted with the 
Major than he was impressed with his merits. When the General 
assumed the charge of the Fonrth (Bailley's) Internal Revenue 
District he selected the Major as his deputy collector. When 
Pleasonton was promoted to the more important 32d District, he 
left Major Bullard in charge of the Fourth till his successor was 
qualified. 

When the Brooklyn authorities found the illicit whiskey makers 
too dangerous to handle, General Pleasonton sent Major Bullard 
and Colonel Thomson over with one hundred men armed only 
with pistols, to make a raid. This small force destroyed nine stills. 
Each raid afterward required the support of from one thousand to 
fifteen hundred regular troops. To form some idea of the dangers 
and difiiculties so bravely and ably overcome by Bullard and 
Thomson, and their civil posse, it is sufiicient to say that a pre- 
vious attempt, supported by the whole force of the Navy Yard 
Marines, was signally defeated, and two of the officers commanding 
died of the injuries received. 

Such qualities cannot pass unnoticed, and when General Pleas- 
onton was summoned to Washington to assume a cabinet appoint- 
ment, Major Bullard was at once selected by him as his successor; 
and the President could not have made a better choice. 

About fi.ve feet ten in height, and heavily built, the major is one 
of the moit powerful men the writer has ever encountered. Among 
the " eyes and no eyes " he ranks with the former, who see, com- 
prehend, and apply. His execut've ability is very remarkable. 
He is a ti-ue friend, and a faithful and devoted subordinate. Few 
men possess a greater command of temper, or larger powers of per- 
suasion. He is a sagacious and agreeable interpreter of a stem 
and rigid superior, whose ideas he can convey with equal force, 
but without undue ofience to the feelings of others, while executing 
599 



f> WILLARD BULLA HD. 

them with equal determination. The Major takes especial pride in 
succeeding where othere have failed. The greater and more 
numerous the obstacles, the stronger his determination to overcome 
them. He never neglects times, or loses time. He perceives, 
seizes, and utilizes critical moments, which other men suffer to 
escape or elude them. 

"Wliat is very remarkable, he is not as ambitious for himself as 
others are for him, because they know his merit and devotedness, 
and are desirous to push him for the benefit of the public service, 
and for their own support in the discharge of onerous and danger 
OQs duties. 

000 




^P/^6<^/C/^— 



WALTON DWIGHT. 



" f|pHE Dwiglits iir-e descended from an old English family, 
^t^^ originally called Dewitt, and have been long and emi- 
^ ^ nently identified with the progress and prosperity of this 
country. Tiiere were three brothers of them in Massachusetts 
who were freeholders, and esteemed as good, reliable and thoroughly 
practical men, possessed of those sterling qualities of head and 
heart which reflect so much credit on American citizenship. 

Colonel Walton Dwight, the gentleman whose name heads this 
sketch, is a native of New York, born at Windsor on the twentieth 
of December, 1838. Of his early life we are not prepared to 
speak, save that his education was limited to such as could be ob- 
tained from an ordinary country school, and his resources are presum- 
ed to have been meager, as at the age of sixteen he announced to hie 
father his determination to "strike out," and provide for himself 
by his own exertions, and began thereupon teaching for a support. 
His mind in youth was always remarkably active and vigilant, 
thirsting for knowledge, readily expanding to a befitting apprecia- 
tion of the useful, and as readily retaining such as should best 
serve him in the future. 

In teaching he was successful, but soon renounced the occupation 
to embark in a business that promised greater emoluments as the 
reward of energy, assiduity, and ability. A favorable opportunity 
was offered and readily embraced to engage in the lumber-trade in 
Pennsylvania; and in this undertaking young Dwight entered 
with an earnestness of purpose and a zealousness of effort that 
bespoke ultimate success. In fact, he developed in the pursuit of 
his object so much of keen foresight in the general conduct of 
601 



WALTON DWIGHT. 



aifairs. and sucli administrative genius, that he became, in 
due course of time, one of the lieaviest lumber merchants on the 
Alleghany river, tlie scene of his operations. 

Upon the breaking out of the war, tired with that patriotic ardor 
which swept over the country, and swelled as if by magic, the 
ranks of our volunteer forces into an irresistible army of heroes, he 
left his business, then yielding him a splendid income, to labor for 
the good of his country. He was one of those who esteemed it no 
less a privilege than a duty to go into the army, and carried there 
the same zeal and devotion, directed in the nobler channel of 
patriotism, tliat had insured success in his other pursuits. During 
the earlier part of the war, conceiving his sphere of usefulness too 
restricted in the situation in which he was then placed, he ap- 
proached Governor Curtin, and appealed to him for authority to 
enlist men for the army. This application was unheeded or evaded 
by the Governor, who considered a man of twenty-two rather young 
for such a trust, if not wholly unable to render efficient service in 
that direction. Nothing daunted, however, he went to work on 
his own responsibility, and soon enlisted over five hundred men for 
the one hundred and forty-ninth Pennsylvania volunteers, better 
known as the second Bucktail regiment, and composed almost 
entirely of mountaineers. 

Again he applied to Governor Curtin, and asked for a captain- 
ship, when the Governor, after being informed of his wonderful 
success in enlisting troops, and having all doubts of capacity, occa- 
sioned by the youthful face, thereby removed, approvingly answered, 
" You shall be a Colonel.'''' 

Colonel Dwight served with distinction in the Army of the 
Potomac from 1861 to 1863. His regiment took a conspicuous 
part in the ever-memorable battle of Gettysburg, where, under 
heavy fire, it made several bayonet charges and brilliant changes of 
front, evidencing the most effective and superior discipline and skill- 
ful manipulation. 
In this battle Colonel Dwight was severely wounded, and was 
602 



WALTON DAVIfiHT. 3 

obliged to leave the service, rancli against his own inclination and 
to the unqualified regret of his comrades in arms, and more par- 
ticularly his immediate command, whose enthusiastic appreciation 
of liis gallantry was equalled only by the sorrow occasioned on his 
retirement. He received, during his career as a soldier, many testi- 
monials of merit from prominent persons, and his command became 
famous as one of the hardest fighting regiments of the war, 
enlisting the respect and admiration of all acquainted with its his- 
tory. 

After recovering from his wounds, Colonel Dwight again en- 
gaged in the lumber business, which he prosecuted successfully, as 
prior to the outbreak of the war. Since that time prosperity has 
attended him in all his undertakings, and the good he has accom- 
plished has ii^creased correspondingly with worldly possessions. 
He is a man who realizes that the acquisition of wealth is desirable, 
in that it increases one's means and opportunities for usefulness, 
and in making others happy it contributes to individual comfort 
and enjoyment. 

Colonel Dwight' s record also shows that his public and private 
charities have been large and most commendable. While in com- 
mand, his bounty was ever felt when occasion presented in behalf 
of the needy soldier ; and in civil life as well, he has given freely 
to the destitute, extended a helping-hand to the worthy when 
struggling against adverse fates, and has been always ready and 
willing to aid merit in the young who lacked the means for acquiring 
education. In all these particulars — and instances have been mani- 
fold — Colonel Dwight has displayed an unselfishness, a nobleness of 
heart, and philanthropical impulses, which would honor any man, 
and certainly bespeak for him a conscience void of oflPense, and 
a life-story characterized with sunshine and happiness in all its 
surroundings. In his success in life, when still a young man, and 
pre-eminently a self-made man, he afibrds an encouraging example 
of what may be accomplished by judicious enterprise and jDerse- 
verauce. His triumph has not been the result of accident, but of 
603 



4 WALTON DWIrtHT. 

tlio caniost labor, the iiulotatigable eftbrt. of one who, dotcrinincd 
to prevail, wouUl not stop short of his aim. 

Colonel Dwight is tall in stature, of handsome appearance and 
ple:\sing address ; he is dignitied in bearing, yet cordial in social 
intercom-se, warm in his welcome and princely in hospitality. In 
convei-sation, he displays an entertaining fund of information, 
coupled with much intelligence and relinement. He is now re- 
siding at the old homestead of Daniel S. Dickinson, in Bingham- 
ton, New York. 

604 






C^c^^.^^^^^^^ 



EDWIN O. 8TANAKD. 

^^M^'9 HE subject of tliis sketcli eiijuys a reputation among 
V^^ those who know him befit as an upriglit man and worthy 
/^M?- citizen. The parents of Governor Stanard were born in 
Newport, New Hampsliire ; his father was Obed Stanard ; 
his mother's name was EUzabeth A. "Webster, their son, tlie sub- 
ject of this sketch, was born in Newport, New Hampshire, in 1832. 
Emigrating with his parents to Iowa in 1836, growing up on a 
farm, in a settler's home, in that tiien wild and uncultivated region, 
toiling with the axe and the implements of husbandry till twenty- 
one years of age for his daily bread, and for the sustenance of the 
household, he came to maturity under precisely those circumstances 
which have produced some of the best specimens of American 
manhood. The opportunities for culture were few, but they were 
diligently improved, and a good general knowledge of scholastic 
branches was obtained. Public schools were established in the 
neigliborhood, books and newspapers found their way to the hearth- 
stone, the family was intelligent, thoughtful and wise, and the child 
which grew up in the midst could but have a thorough knowledge 
of men and the world. 

Tall, somewhat stout, with limbs firmly knit, a picture of health, 
ardent in temperament, and with a most benevolent face and man- 
ner, Mr. Stanard would at once be recognized as a man of country 
blood and bone, although disciplined and polished by the business 
and associations of a city life. 

Mr. Stanard went to St. Louis at the very dawn of manhood, seek- 
ing position and fortune in the world. His genius led him to com- 
mercial pursuits, but for some time Providence seemed to frown upon 
605 



a EDWIN O. STANAED. 

liis attempts. For three or four years he taught a pubhc school iu 
the neighboring State of Ilhnois, seeking at intervals for some posi- 
tion, however humble, in a commercial house in St. Louis. But 
there was no one to speak a word of encouragement to the adven- 
turous young " carpet-bagger," who hnew he was a merchant, and 
only sought an opportunity to demonstrate the fact. No discerning 
mind perceived the ability of the fi'iendless young man who vainly 
sought for employment, and no prophetic vision caught a glimpse 
of his. illustrious future. 

In the winter of 1856 Mr. Stanard obtained employment in a 
shipping and commission house in Alton, Illinois, where he m^de 
many business friends, and learned important lessons foi' the future : 
but before the end of the year his employer died, and again he had 
the world before him where to choose. He had not forgotten his 
young an;bition to be a St. Louis merchant, and his native persist- 
ence of character never allowed him to turn away from an object 
which he had once seriously contemplated, till his efforts were crown- 
ed with success. Having made the acquaintance of Mr. C. J. Gil- 
bert, and the two having from four to five hundred dollars between 
them, Mr. Stanard, associated with his friend Gilbert, came to St. 
Louis, not tliis time to seek employment, but to start the produce 
and general conmiission business, and to estabUsh the afterwards 
Midely known firm of Stanard, Gilbert & Co. Their success was 
truly i-eraarkable for men commencing as they did, almost Avithout 
capital, and with few influential friends for advisers or indorsers. 
Subsequently, they opened in Chicago the house of Gilbert, Stanard 
& Co. — Mr. Gilbert going to Chicago for that purpose. Their en 
terjjrise was rewarded with enlarged success. Mr. Stanard after[ 
wards started the house of Stanard & Slayback, in New Orleans, 
and in many other directions he has, at different times, extended 
his commercial relations. Mr. Stanard is not at present engaged 
in the commission business, except in New Orleans, having in 1866 
purchased the Eagle steam mills in St. Louis, and devoted himself 
10 the manufactui'e of "extra superfine." He has acquired a com- 
606 



EDWINO.STANARD. 3 

petency, and knows how to enjoy his fortune and the esteem of his 
fellow men. He has been connected with most of the public enter- 
pi-ises of St. Louis which have originated in the last fifteen years 
sustaining them earnestly and liberally with his counsels, energies 
and contributions. The merchants of St. Louis have tried him iu 
many places, and proved him worthy of confidence and honoi- 
They have made him President of the Chamber of Commerce, Vice- 
President of the National Board of Trade, and President of the 
Citizens' Insurance company. Director of the Missouri Pacific Pail- 
road, and of the Life Association of America. They have withheld 
from him no position of trust or responsibility. 

They urged his nomination for Lieutenant-Governor in 1868, 
and gave him, in the Convention and at the polls, a. most earnest 
and enthusiastic support. Though Mr. Stanard had not previously 
held political office and was wholly inexperienced in public afiairs, 
his nomination added great strength to the ticket, as is evident from 
the fact that in St. Louis, and wherever he was best known, he rah 
largely ahead of the average vote of his party. Men had such con- 
fidence in his integrity, practical common sense, and ability to adapt 
himself to any condition in life, that they were determined to tes- 
tify at the polls their appreciation of his worth. 

As Lieutenant-Governor of the State, Mr. Stanard has nobly acted 
his part. His gentlemanly deportment, thorough reliability and 
generous consideration of all classes and persons, made him troops 
of warm and devoted friends. The Senate has seldom had an abler 
and kinder presiding officer. His opponents were ever ready to ac- 
knowledge his strict justice and absolute impartiality. And he has 
no warmer friends throughout the State of Missouri than those who 
have served with him in legislative halls. " Stanard is an honest 
man, and is all right every way," is their constant and united tes- 
timony. 

Mr. Stanard has from boyhood been an active and consistent 
member of the Methodist church. 

Dming the war he gave largely of his means to sustain the Sani- 
637 



K n W I N O . S r A N A R D . 



t.'irv and Cliristiiin cominissious, and to uphold other enterprises for 
tlie successful prosecution of the war. lie has never regarded auj 
offering too great to he placed on the bleeding altars of the republic. 
Aiid in any i)usitioii to which he may be called, he will exhibit the 
same integrity, patriotism and lofty devotion to the public welfare 
which has characterized him in all his past career. His native good 
sense, his eminent prudence, his ready knowledge of men and things 
will enable him to act well his part in whatever sphere he may be 
called to lill. 



JOXA^'HAN THORNE. 

W"-^ ONATHAN THORXE was hovn on the 20th day of 
tt^fe April, 1801, in Washington, Dutchess Co., "S. T. His 
^^^j^ great grandfather Isaac Thome, was one of tJie early set- 
tlers of that section, having moved there from Long Island 
about the year 1720. His father, Samuel Thome, commenced 
life as a merchant in the town of his hirth, in 1794, and con- 
tinued mercantile pursuits until 1814, when he settled upon a 
farm, purposing to educate his only sou, the subject of our 
sketch, with the idea that he should spend his life as a farmer. 
The youth, however, after several years' experience, proposed 
to try his fortune in K'ew Tork, and in 1820 he came to thit 
city and engaged in the dry goods trade. His father, soon felt 
so much the need of his assistance, that he induced him to 
return to the farm after an absence of some three years. 
He did not return alone, having in the mean time married a 
daughter of Israel Corse. In 1830, he again left the farm for the 
city, and succeeded to the business of his father-in-law, which was 
the manufacture and sale of leather. Early in his career he dis- 
covered that it was much more important that a shoe manufacturer, 
in purchasing stock, should be better pleased with it when 
he had it at home than when he looked at it in his store, and 
Ijy bearing this ever in mind, he established a reputation which has 
been one secret of his success in life. He is still interested in the 
same business, being senior partner of the house of Thome, Watson 
&Co. 

The early years spent on the farm were often looked back to in 
after life with pieaijure, and when the old homestead came into his 
possession, in 1849, by the death of his father, he at once prepared 
609 



2 JONATHAN rilOliNK. 

it tor !i suuuuor rosiilonoo. Tlio ii\i>nll\s j>!»ssoil in tlic i-ouiilrv 
soon muilo liiiu awaiv liow Itsu'kward tho fanuors woiv in mlvancinj* 
thoir own iiitoivsU, and witii « ilosiro to do wliat ho oouKl to liotli 
toaoh iinil assist thoni, l\o in 1851, and aptaiii iu 1851^ n\ado from 
England importations of short horiiod cattlo, whioh wore foHowoii 
hy othoi-s ii\ tho sprinsj and fall of 1S55, and again in I8r>(5 and 
18r>T. All woro si'li'otod with great caro, and ontiroly rogardU^ssof 
oost, and wiMV tho tlnost and n\ost vahiahlo specimens of the breed 
over taken out of (.hvat IJritain. The givat improvement niaile 
not only iu Hutehess coiu\ty, hut throughout very nu\ny of the 
various States of the Union by tho introduetion of these several 
strains of blood, has been most marked, and proves eonehisivoly 
the wisdom of Mr. Thome's ehoiee of a way to benelit and advance 
the agrieultural interests of the country. Though the prices then 
paid for individual animsUs seemed enormous, being for two sepa- 
rate ones as high as 1000 guineas, yet descendants frouv these same 
have since brought more than double the amount then given, and 
over 20 of them have been iv-oxported to England, and tho muue 
of Thorudalo has a world-wide celebrity among all the breoilers of 
tho various kinds of impi-ovod stock. 

The friends whom he never failed to have, were attracted to him 
by his own merit. Kvery adviuicing step was the legitimate result 
of pivceding selfnlenial, foresight, integrity, ami cheerful labor. 
Nothing eouUl furnisli a better comn\entary on the selfish folly of 
those who think that they do well to bo angry with tho world, 
because it does not load them with pivsperity before tliey have 
done anything to deserve it. lie is an accomplislied merchant, 
but his juvsperity, instead of being accidentsd, is owing to yeai-s of 
pei-sevcring industry, to his uprightness, to a singularly qnick per- 
ception of character, and to a native good sense and soundness of 
judgment which would have made him successftil in any vocation 
that he might have chosen, lie doubtless has the New Englainl 
love of success iu what he undertakes. lUit there were things he 
valued inoiv thjui succt^ss. He valued a libenU hcjut iu his own 
UIO 



■lONATIfAN TIlOllKK. JJ 

bosom, and an unrcproacliing conHciencc, moro than money. In 
fact, mammon was never his god, but liis servant. Ilis gains 
liavc boon without reproach. lie never lost a good customer, and 
of the many orders given liim to be filled very much at Iiis own 
discretion, the case scarcely occurred in whicli any com)>lairit ever 
reached his ear. He never sought large ]>rofits; nor would he 
make money out of other men's necessities. lie accumulated a 
fortune because he was a sagacious and an accomplislied man of 
IjusinesB, and not because of any grasping passion for accumula- 
tion. 

CU 




C/^ry^y'ci^^^^J 




HON. BENJAMIN DOUGLAS 



HERE is no worthier example of a self-made man than 
the Hon. Benjamin Douglas, the distinguished pump man- 



ufacturer of Middletown, Conn. In his life-work and char- 
acter, he stands pre-eminent as a model to his fellow- men. 
At no point, from early youth to the present hour, has he failed in 
offering the most significant lessons of perseverance, intelligence and 
rectitude. 

He was born at Northford, Conn., Apiil 3, 1816. His father was 
a farmer. Both his parents were descendants of old Puritan stock, 
and true love and devotion to the principles of those godly fore- 
fathers is most warmly cherished in the bosom of the son. The 
early records of Boston show an ancestor of the family as a resident 
■ of that city in 1646. The subject of our notice is a grandson of 
Colonel "William Douglas, of Eevolutionary fame. He was engaged 
on his father's farm in the town of Northford during the summer 
months, receiving his education at the country school in the winter 
until he was sixteen years of age. He was industrious in labor and 
in study. His opportunities of whatever nature were thankfully 
improved ; and he showed a reflectiveness and ambition which gave 
token of a useful career in the future. 

At sixteen he went to Middletown and commenced his appren- 
ticeship at the machinery business. In 1832 his elder brother, Wil- 
liam Douglas, engaged in a small way as a machinist, in Middletown, 
Ct., in the manufacture of pumps and small engines, which was the 
origin of the present extensive pump manufactory still carried on 
there. The two brothers in the year 1839 united their energies and 
talents. The firm became W. & B. Douglas, which has achieved a 
613 



2 n O N . »K N .1 A M I N n o r « I, A 8 . 

I'olcbritv not unlv tlivoiiiiluiiit the United States, but in every (juar- 
tcr of tbo world. 

In 1S42 "William and Eenjaniiu Douglas invented their celebrated 
i-evolving-stand cistern pniup, on which they secured ii patent in the 
United States. Since obtiiining this lii-st patent they have been con- 
stantly making improvements \ipon the article, and inventing new 
styles of pumps, so that the whole number of patents secured by 
them amounts to more than one hundred in the United States, and 
four or five in Europe, among which is their enameled pmnp, which 
meets with great favor. For the purpose of introducing the revolv- 
ing-stand pump, they traveled with a pump UTider each arm from 
store to 9toi"e, They had great prejudices and obstacles of difterent 
kinds to overcome, for at that time an iron or metallic pump was 
scarcely known. In that day all sorts of inventions were regarded 
either as humbugs or doubtful innovations on the safe practices of 
generations. Hence, as these inventors and manufacturers of the 
metallic pump went about the country, it required a stout faith in 
their invention, and an unconquerable determination to succeed, to 
make them pei-sovere in their undertjiking. They expected their 
success to be gradual, but they felt that it was inevitable. In the 
fii-st year their sales did not amount to three hundred pumps, but 
tliey persevered until the Douglas pump beeanio a standard article 
of American haixlw.aro. 

In 1S5S "William Doughis died. A stock company was then 
formed under a special charter of tlie Legislature of Connecticut, 
granted in 1S59, taking the name of the W". & B. Douglas Manu- 
facturing Company. Benjamin Douglivs is president of the com- 
pany, which hi« a capital of five hundred thousand dollars. Two* 
hundred and fifty men are employed. Over eight hundred ViVi-ieties 
of pumps are ntade, besides hydraulic ranas, gai-den engines, and 
other hydraulic machines. The company has extensive warehouses 
in New York and Chicsigo. They received the highest medal for 
pum[>s at the Univei-sal Exposition at Paris in 1S6T. Their sales 
of hydraulic machines alone amount to about five hundred thousand 
6U 



dollars annually, and their market includes tlie United Staton, the 
Canadas, Soutli America, the WcHt Indies, Australia, Europe, Asia, 
:iii(] almost every other market of tlio globe. 

This immense biwineaB is in a great measure the result of the 
well-formed plans and business capacity and energy of Benjamin 
Douglas. The same spirit of indomitable perseverance and ot' 
straight-forward dealing tliat induced him to take his pump unde;' 
his arm and go from store to store, explaining its merits and demon- 
strating its usefulness, has ever since been his oharacteristic. His 
enterpiise is one of the most magnificent instances of great growth 
from small begirmings to be found in the whole country, and he is 
justly pointed to as an evidence of the success which is certain tfj 
attend qualities of personal energy and purity and integrity of 
character. 

He has also been distinguished in political life as a faithful serv- 
ant of the interests of the people. For a number of years he held 
the position of Mayor of Middleto<vn, and in ISCl he was elected 
Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut. In both of these offices he 
exhibited the same intelligence and uprightness which had marked 
his business career. He was also chosen Presidential Elector of 
Connecticut in 1860, and had the honor of casting one of the six 
electoral votes of his State for Abraham Lincoln. 

The charities of Mr. Douglas are very profuse, but never osten- 
tatious. No person in need is ever turned away from him without 
substantial aid. All great enterprises are quickly secondcl by his 
influence and pecuniary support, whenever they are brought to his 
attention. His efforts for the a'lvancement of Middletown have 
been constant and most practical, 

Mr. Douglas is erect and well-proportioned. His head is lon;r\ 
with a high and intellectual brow. The eyea are small and deep-set. 
At a glance you see that he is a man of thought and moral life, and 
the closer your intimacy the more does this fact become evident, 
both by word and act. He Ls genial and kind-hearted in hLs dispo- 
sition, but there is always a natural dignity of manner. In his 
C15 



.[ HON. II K N.t A MIN norcLAS. 

opinions on all suhjocts lio is cleiir ami deuiik'il ; in hi.s actions ho is 
just and ioai-less. At tlio aj^o of tifteen Mr. Duuj:;las united liin»:--olt' 
\\itli tlio Oongrogational clmrch, and has continued tln-ough life a 
member and active friend and supporter of this church of his fatliera. 
Mr. Douglas's business success has been gained, step by step, 
through sheer perseverance and courage. A.s a boy toiling on a 
farm, and as a mechanic's apprentice in the shop, he comprehendetl 
that his dreams of ambition might all be realized without a friend 
or a dollar, save such as he eould secure through his own exertions. 
This could be prevented by no political, social, or business consider- 
ations. His merit as an individual, his fidelity as a citizen, and his 
i-apability as a business man, were to determine the whole question. 
He has made his life an example of industry and success, and an 
lionor to his State and eouatr}'. 

(Hi) 



EDWARD SHIPPED, 

OP PniLADELPIIIA. 

W ' 1 1 1 ', siibjcct oi' tins brief skotcli is descended from the ancient 
%:A'^2 Kiiglish iliinlly of Sliippen. In past centuries many of 
^ ^ the name were noted in scholastic, governmental, and 
mercantile pursuits. The founder of tlie American family, Edward 
Shippen, emigrated to Boston in consequence of tlie want of tolera- 
tion of the Quakers in England, and resided in that city for some 
years until he was compelled from like causes to remove to New- 
port, Rhode Island. Upon the invitation of his personal friend, 
"William Penn, he removed to Philadelphia, where he settled per- 
manently. He soon distinguished himself in all public matters 
which had in view the good of the city, and of the Province of 
Pennsylvania. Penn early learned his value, and appointed him 
the first mayor of Philadelphia, in 1701, which ofiice he held 
several years. We find him prominent in. the Provincial Coun- 
cils, and holding the first post of influence in that legislative 
l)ody. He was a man of wealth, of liberal education and en- 
larged public spirit — all of these lie utilized for the general 
weal. His sons followed the example so well set by their 
father. They too devoted themselves to public affairs, and some 
of them were prominent in the Provincial Councils. One of them 
served as mayor of Philadelpliia, as his father had done. One 
of the family founded, with the eminent Dr. Morgan, the Medi- 
cal University of Pennsylvania, so celebrated at this day ; 
another became Chief Justice of Pennsylvania; another presi- 
dent of the Provincial Councils ; another secretary of the same 
body, while another, the late Dr. William Ship])en, of Pliila- 
delphia, became eminent for his works of Christian love and 
C17 



benovolonco, and like the subject of this moiuoir largely served 
tlio publie ill educatiouiil matters. it may be truly said, that 
from tlio time of the settlement of Peiinsylvauia till tliis day, 
those of the luime were continuously serviut^ the public and have 
boon hold in liii;h esteem. This family like all others illustrates 
the imcrring rule, that in process of time, and in the passage of 
generations, wealth disappeai-s, and must bo renewed by industry, 
brain, or muscle. The father of the subject of this memoir. Dr. 
doseph (.lalloway Shippon, was born in Philadelphia and studied 
his profession under the leju-ned Dr. Wistar. In his early yeai-s he 
sought health in retirement to rural life, and removed to Elm 
Hill, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, llcre his son Edward was 
born in November, 1S23. In 1S31 ho removed to the county of 
Schuylkill in the same State, partly in the hope of securing better 
educational advantages for his children ; and his son Edward was 
here phiccd at public school, and atlerward at the town academy, 
lie had no collegiate advantages, nor had his parents the means 
to attbrd him such ti'easuros. In early yeiu-s he was paralyzed, and 
he still bears with him its marks. This, however, did not change 
his indomitable determination to succeed in life's pui*suits. In 
1841 he came to Philadelphia and entered the law office of the emi- 
nent George M. Wharton, Esq. When called to the bar he avoided 
politics, that stunibling- block upon which many a man of talent 
has been wrecked. He early gained a lucrative practice — and in 
the midst of it he did not forget that he owed duties to society. 
We soon tind him at work in the public schools of Philadelphia, 
which then, though fairly under way, were still in process of con- 
struction. He was one of the most active and diligent committee- 
men of his ward, and with his keen perception, the wants and errors 
of the system of public education were soon impressed upon his 
mind. To assure hiniself of the truth of his convictions he visited 
the public schools of Now England and •elsewhere. After nine 
years of active service he was unanimously called into the Board 
of Controllei-s of Public Schools. In this new position he at once 
(JIS 



KDW A RD RIIIPPKN. 3 

commenced the reforms wliicb he had so long studied. His col- 
leagues appreciated his zeal, energy, and clear judgment in educa- 
tional concerns, and at tlie end of his first year of service with them, 
they unanimously elected him to the presidency of the board, where 
for six successive years he was lionored with that most useful and 
laborious office. Standing almost as a parent over 80,000 children 
and 1,500 teachers, he soon found himself beloved by all, and 
having secured by constant acts of kindness, and by manifestations of 
sympathy, an influence of infinite service in his official policy and 
reform, he used it well and wisely in the cause he had so much at 
heart. With the teachers he bore the title of the " The Teach- 
ej-s' Friend" — more pleasing to him than an hereditary title of 
nobility. Under Mr. Shippen's presidency there was an entire 
change in the mode of appointment of controllers. Election by the 
people was abolished by a law of his framing, and the judiciary was 
charged with the duties and responsibilities of appointment. The 
old inefficient system of examining into the qualifications of teach- 
ers was abrogated, and a new system inaugurated, superior, it is 
believed, to any in the land. Mr. Shippen battled incessantly for 
the payment of just compensation to teachers and aided largely in 
securing for them double pay. He kept a watchful eye over ex- 
penditures of public money amounting to over one million dollars 
annually. The forty new school-houses commenced under his 
administration, at the cost of $1,500,000, attest his interest, taste, 
and judgment. He caused the days of brick-wall school architect- 
ure to be numbered, and to-day Philadelphia may boast of the best 
constructed and most substantial stone edifices in the land for 
sciiool i)urposes. The annual rej^orts of Mr. Shippen were replete 
with valuable suggestions, and they presented masses of valuable 
statistics such as had never yet been collated. These reports were 
in demand over the United States and Europe. In them he was 
iiold in the annunciation of reform and progress, and no less so 
while battling for them. As presiding officer he was commended 
by his associates for the able, dignified, courteous, and impartial 
619 



4 En w A K P s 11 1 r r v. n . 

manner with wliioh he discharged his duties ns presiding offieer. 
After lit\eon years of useful, active, and gratuitous service in the 
public schools, Mr. Shippeii found his labors too pressing upon him, 
in view of the duties of his profession and othei-s he had assumed. 
For these reasons he reluctantly resigned his office, and on his re- 
tirement the controUei-s, directors, teachei-s, and pupils of tJie 
public schools of Philadelphia, as well as the citizens generally, ex- 
pressed deep regret, and otlered him such tokens of aflectionate 
re^ai-d, luid such words of commendation as nobly repaid him for 
years of service and usefulness. In works of benevolence Mr. 
Shippon was always forward. Many of the institutions oCPhiladel- 
phia owe thanks to him for his activity and zeal in their behalf. 

Mr. Shippen is a gentleman of much intelligence, possessing a 
clear and active mind enriched by extensive reading and careful 
reflection. He is an untiring worker, and a good, true-heai-ted 
num ; is sociable and enjoys a good joke, and has a faculty of 
making plenty of friends. He is a faithful friend, a genial com- 
panion, and a polished scliolarly gentleman that the Quaker City 
may well be proud of. He is methodical in the performance of 
his duties and upright in his actions. His upiuioiis are listened 
to with respect and his counsels sought. 
620 



GEORGE H. SANFORD. 

Wo extract the following memoir from "Lifo Sketches of Executive Ofllcors am) Mem- 
liors of tho Legislature of the State of New York," publiHhed by S. 0. liutehin.s 
& IT. II. Boone, Albany. 




.K. SANFOliD is a native of the towu of Qiiefiiribiiry. 
"Warreu County, New York, where he was born, De- 
iinber 14, 1836. He is of English extraction. His 
rnatei'iial grandfather removed from Lebanon, Connecticut, to 
Wasliington County, New York, about the year 1785, and married 
a daughter of William Kobards, who was an officer in the French 
war, and was taken prisoner to Canada by the Indians, but after- 
ward escaped by running the gantlet. His ))atoniaI grandfather, 
David Sanford, in 1795, emigrated froiti New Millbrd, Connecticut, 
to Queensbury, New York, where the father of George H. Sanford 
was born, and who represented Warren County in the Legislature 
of 1841. 

Mr. Sanford lived with his parents at Glenn's Falls, and, at the 
age of twelve, entered the store of a merchant as clerk, serving in 
that capacity, during the summer season, for two years, and attend- 
ing school during the winter time. When he was fourteen, his 
parents changed their residence to Ballston, New York, and he 
went to Albany and found employment as receiving and shipping 
clerk in the wholesale lumber trade. He continued in the emplo/ 
of the same firm for six years, during the season of navigation, ex- 
cepting one year, while attending the Eensselaer Polytechnic 
Institute. During two winters of this time he attended other 
schools, and the remaining three winters he was engaged in lumber- 
ing, in a moderate way, on his own account, in Genesee County, 
G21 



2 GKORGK II. SANFORD 

New York, and Potter Co\inty, reunsylvania. When twenty 
yenre of nj>e, Mr. Smiford letl Albany, and gave his whole attention 
to his own husiiioss plans. 

Having made Syraensc, Now York, his residence, ho there en- 
tered into the lumber and salt trade, eombining, also, the manur 
faeture of lumber at Saginaw, Michigan, and locating pine lands in 
that State. He was one of the company tii-st organized, in 1858, to 
bore for salt water in the Saginaw Valley. In the spring of 1862, 
ho withdrew temporarily from active business, invested his means 
in real estate, and removed from Syracuse, New York, to near 
Oneida, his present place of residence. He is Vice-President of 
the Oneida Savings Bank, and a director in the Oneida Valley 
National Bank, and Pome and Clinton Eailroad. Ho has been 
engaged in the lumber trade, at Pome, since 1SG7. ^h: Sanfordia 
possessed of extraordinary business capacity, which, with his accu- 
rate knowledge of men, well qualities him for arduous and responsi- 
ble administrative positions. He is a young man in fact, and 
a younger one in appearance ; a man of few words, but ojie who 
accomplishes nnich. His plans once formed, he never falters nor 
doubts, but executes them with coolness and determination. He en- 
joys in an eminent degree the confidence of the people he repre- 
sents. Ho was elected Supervisor of the town of Verona, on the 
Democratic ticket, in 1855 and 1866, by majorities of one hundred 
and fifty-nine and three hniuhvd and eighty-nine, respectively, 
though it was a strong Pepnblicau town. In the Democratic Con- 
vention of the Third Assembly District of Oneida County, in 1866, 
ho was unanimously nominated for member of Assembly, and elected 
by a majority of four hundred and ninety, although his Pepnbliciin 
predecessor, Hon. B. N. Huntington, had been elected the previous 
year by a majority of 741 He served as a member of the Com- 
mittee on Banks. In 1867 IMr. Sjinford was unanimously chosen 
Democratic candidate for Senator in the Oneida district, and 
though running largely ahead of his ticket was defeated by the 
Hon. Samuel Campbell, who was elected by 250 majority, and who, 
&2-2 



GKOllGE ir. SANKOHD. 3 

two years previously, carried the district by a majority of 2,196, 
In 18G9 the Democratic Couvention of Oneida County nominated 
Mr. Sanford by acclamation for the oiBce of Senator, liis opponent 
being Diinicl B. Goodwin, a popular candidate and a representative 
man in his party. 

Mr. Sanford was elected by a majority of 2(5, while the Eepubli- 
can candidate for Secretary of State received a majority of 1,023 in 
the same district. He is the only Democratic Senator elected from 
the Oneida district since 1849, or during the organization of the 
Republican party. Mr. Sanford was a delegate to the Democratic 
JS'ational Convention held at Chicago in 18G4, and the youngest 
member of that body at which General McClellan was nominated" 
for the Presidency, and also a delegate at the National CoTivention 
held at New York in 1868, where Horatio Seymour was nominated. 
During 1867, '68, and '69 he was a member of the Democratic 
State Central Committee, and has repeatedly represented his party 
as delegate to their State Conventions. He is thoroughly versed 
in the politics of his State, and prominent in the councils of his 
party. In the last legislature, representing a constituency largely 
interested in the welfare of the canals, he was active and influen- 
tial in securing such legislation as would best elfect reform in their 
maintenance and management. 

Mr. Sanford has received a gratifying recognition of his influ- 
ence and ability, from the President of the Senate, by being pla(;ed 
on some of the most important committees. He serves on the 
committees on Finance, Canals, and is chairman of the Committees 
on Rules and Indian Affairs. 

623 





t c.eJ?-t>i 



CHA-RLES REEDER. 



i.W?HE parr-;nt3 of Mr. Chaa. Reeder were Ponnsylvanians b> 

•(^1 birth, but removed to the city of Baltimore in 1813, where 
Mr. Reeder Sr. established a manufactory of steam engines, 
and conalructed the first steamboat engine built in that city. Asa 
machinist, and marine engine builder, he established a wide, and 
excellent reputation, and continued in business for nearly thirty 
years. 

The subject of this notice was bom in Baltimore, October 31st, 
1817; and after receiving the usual elementary instruction taught 
in private schools of the city, discontinued his attendance of the 
same, and at the age of fifteen commenced to learn the machinist 
trade in his father's work-shop. His leisure hours were employed 
in the study of mathematics and mechanical philosophy, under the 
instruction of an accomplished mathematician. He aLso attended 
lectures at the University of Maryland, and from these and 
other sources, acc[uired a knowledge of mechanical laws rcbiting 
to steam engineering. Combining theory vnth technical skill 
acquired in the shop, and making a practical application of 
mechanical laws, was probably the foundation of his future success 
as a mechanician. 

In the years 183G, '37 and '38, as a member of the firm of 
C. Reeder and Soas, and foreman of the machine department, he 
assisted in the construction of several steamers, which, in their day, 
were consid'-red first-class vessels. One was the " Natchez," bu'lt 
to run between New York and Nat<;hcz, MississippL In 1838 a 
G2j 



a CUAKLliS REEDEU. 

great disaster bcfcl the linn ; the cntiie works were destroyed by fire, 
and robuildiug tlio same caused liuaaciiil ombarrasstueut lor several 
yeai-s. 

In January, 1842, Mr. Reoder entered into part neri^hip with an 
elder brother, and by much energy a\id perseverance established the 
former credit of the firm, his partnership .continued for six years, 
when his brother withdrew, and assumt-d the m:inagement of a lino 
of steamers, of which he was in part owner. 

The firet contract made on his own responsibility was to furnish 
the machinery for a mail steamship, to run between Charleston and 
Havana. This ship, the " Isabel," was completed in 1848, and her 
successful perfornianco attracted the attention of ship-builders in 
other cities of this country, then engaged in the construction of 
ocean steamers. Some of tho improvements introduced in the 
"Isabel" were of such importance that ihey were not only 
adopted in the construction of subsetiuent steamers for ocean naviga- 
tion, but those already built were changed, and the improvement 
first applied to the " Isabel " became generally adopted in ocean 
paddle-wheel steamers. Many ocean, bay and river steamers have 
since been supplied with machinery from the works of Mr. Reeder, 
and their successful perloimance has fully sustained the reputation 
of the establishment. At present, associated with Mr. Reeder, is a 
younger brother, and also his sons. The works now conducted under 
the name of C. Reeder & Co. are thi principal ones in Baltimore, 
engaged in the manufacture of marine engines. 

We make an extract from a work published in 185(), entitled 
" Leading Pursuits and Leading Men": 

"Mr. Reader is emphatically a practical man, thoroughly versed in 
every department, having both the ability and disposition to execute 
his own drawings, and make his own calculations. Although manu- 
facturing mill-work and other machinery, yet his fame justly rests 
upon the manufacture of engines for oeer.n and river steamers, in 
which he is not excelled in this country." 
t;-26 



owes 



Whatever of wealth and social position he has achieved, he ..^ 
It all to himself. lie has been the architect of his own fortun. and 
his hfe will illustrate the old maxim, "where there is a will there is 
a v/ay." Without injurin- any one he has accomplished much • 
and as manufacturer, a citizca, and a man, he deserves the esteem of 
posterity. 



627 



GE^. R. S. SATTERLEE. 

^'"M"^ I'^EVET Beig -Geneeal Richaed S. Satteelee, M. D 
!m ^^'^^ ^^^^'^^l Purveyor U. S. A, now in retirement, was 
A& bom in the town of Fairfield, Herkimer County, State of 
^^cw York, 6tb day of December, 1798, at the house of his father 
Major William Satterlee, who a few months later died of wounds 
received at the battle of Brandywine, in the War of the Eevolu- 
tion-his paternal grandfather having fallen at the massacre of 
Wyoming. 

After a preUminary education, he studied and graduated in the 
medical profession, and commenced its practice in 1S18, in Seneca 
County, same State. 

Becoming dissatisfied with this limited sphere of advancement in 
his profession, he proceeded to the then sparsely settled West, in 
search of a more advantageous field. His wanderings brou-ht 
him to Detroit, Territory of Michigan, and his good fortune there 
gained him the kindly friendship of the late General Lewis Cass 
then Governor of the Territory. Detroit was at this time a favor- 
ite military post, and the attractive association witli resident offi 
cers, together with the treasured reminiscences of the military 
career of his father, determined the yomig surgeon to a military 
Hfe, and he became attending surgeon at a neighboring garrison. 

Visiting Washington soon after, at the instance of General Cass 
the latter manifested the value of his friendship and influences by 
such introductions to the Secretary of War, Mr. Calhoun, and the 
eminent Surgeon-General of the Army, Dr. Lovell, as obtained 
the appointment of Assistant-Surgeon U. S. A., and, at the foot of 
the list, Dr. Satterlee received his commission, dated 25th Febru- 
ary, 1822. 

With grateful heart and pleasant anticipations he joined his post 
629 



a QEN. K. S. SATTERLEE. 

on tho Niagara Frontier, and spent tho next fifteen years in the 
Indian conntry, on tho h\kcs, in that "Frontier service" which, 
even in time of peace, fiirnislies vigorous experiences to men of 
earnest purpose and strongly niarkeil character. On tho opening 
of tho Florida "War, in 1S37, he accompanied tho troops to Tampa 
Bay, and being assigned to duty as Medical Director on tho staft 
of the commanding olficcr, General Zachary Taylor (then Colonel 
of tho First Infantry), took tho field with them in pui-suit of tho 
Seminoles. After tho battle of Okeechobee, ho joined tho head- 
quarters of General "Winfield Scott, in tho memorable Cherokee 
campaign of 1S3S ; and on its termination, ho accompanied the 
troops to the Canada frontier, and then, after two yeai-s' sei-vico 
and another Florida campaign, ho was stationed on tho seaboard 
until ISIO. 

When our army moved on Mexico, Surgeon Satterleo reported 
to General Scott at tho rendezvous of Lobos Island, in 1S47, and 
landing with him at Vera Cruz, became Chief Surgeon of tho First 
Division of regular troops under General "Worth. 

He served in this arduous position during the siege and capture 
of "Vera Cruz, the march into tho interior, the bloody battles of 
Cerro Gordo, Cherubusco, Malina del Ecy, and tlie storming of the 
Castle of Chcpultepec and tho gates of the City of Mexico. On 
tho occupation of tho city, ho was assigned to duty as Medical 
Director of tho Army, on the staff of General Scott, and with tho 
able assistance of his associate surgeons, he performed tho respon- 
sible duties of the establishment and regulation of tho numerous 
hospitals required for the reception and care of the largo number 
of sick and wounded. Fntil the termination of the occupation by 
the treaty of Gnaduloupo Hidalgo, and as Medical Director, tinder 
General Butler, of Kentucky (who succeeded General Scott), he 
remained until, in due course, relieved from duty with the Army of 
Mexico, wlien ho proceeded to report at "Washington City, enjoying 
but few days of " leave of absence " there, before being again put 
on station at an eastern post. 

G30 



GEN. E. S. 8ATTEELEE. 3 

In December, 185^, the Third Artillery sailed in the ill-fatc^l 
Bteamcr '• San Francisco," for California, by the way of Cape Horn, 
a new Pacific Mail Company steamer, going to the Pacific, char- 
tered as a government transport, Ircighted with 800 officers and 
men— Dr. Satterlee was the senior surgeon. The wreck of the ship 
will not Boon be forgotten; three days after sailing, in a long-con- 
tinued and terrible gale on the Gulf Stream, more than 200 lives 
were lost, and the destruction of the vessel was but the commence- 
ment of the sufferings of many that were rescued by brave seamen 
in vessels inadequate in size and provisions to the numbers of the 
saved. The troo^xj that survived arrived frmL virifjm po-rts in 
New York, February, 1853. Surgeon Satterlee was then assigned 
to duty as Medical Purveyor of the Army, in which capacity he 
continued during the war of the Rebellion. 

At this time ho had advanced to the head of the list of surgeons 
by regular gradations, with an unsullied record, ever receiving the 
c<jmmendations of all the Generals with whom he liad scnx-d'and 
from the Government the Brevet of lirigadier-Gcneral, " for dili- 
gent care and attention in i^rocuring proper anny supplies aa 
Medical Purveyor, and for economy and fidelity in the disburse- 
ments of large sums of money." 

Under the operation of the law making the peace e,-tablishment, 
General Satterlee continued in discharge of the same duties, with 
the newly created offics of Chief Medical Purveyor of the Army. 
Few, unacQuainted with the m/ignitude and completeness of this 
branch of the ssrvioe during the war, can appreciate the skilled 
supervision and grave responsibilities which are indicated by the 
sum, exceeding ($20,000,000) twenty million of dollars, disbursed 
and accounted for by this officer. 

After these many years of devoted service to his country, taking 
but about six montlis' leave of absence during his whole military 
life, he was retired by President Johnson, in the last days of his 
administration, while yet in the enjoyment of physical vigor, and 
with mental faculties ripened but not impaired by age. 
631 



i OEN. 11. a. SATTlCni.RE. 

Tlio forofjoinp; nicvfly chronologiciil nkctch of a life dcvotod to a 
poiic'cfiil bnuu'li of tlio military profession, fivils to give such indi- 
ciitiona of piTsonal clianieter as attach to tlioso careers of acfivo 
participation in conllict which write tlioir history in llio records ot 
vi('tori(>s; nnd yd siicli lives ofl<Mi possess elements of courageous 
dovoliiiii iiiid Miarlu'd aliiiily Wi)rlliy of iierpotuated notice. 

From the hour lliat ihe youut; Dr. Satterloo started on his soli- 
tary horaeback jom-ney throuj^h the wilderness of the then far west, 
to carvo out his career, his life work he^an in earnest, and with nn- 
woarii'd constancy were his (dear natural perceptions devoted to the 
disccriinu'iil and iipplical ion of whatever ndj;;ht heneiit the condi- 
tion of his lcll..w-nicn piiysically and morally; the iniluenco ot 
Iumu'voKmicc aniKii;;- liic Indians of tlio hakes, remnants of our host 
trilu'M, uiado Ills name Ion;;- a himsehold word with them; and 
wlu'u ill time, the power of a sincere rcli^jjious impulse was added 
to his natural slreni;-lli, lie hccame a lielpiii^- hand to border mis- 
sionar.'s, to an extent of iniliienee that t'ew oliiers couUl supply; 
of sueii men iMme the forcistiiat carry on the perpetual conllict 
Willi the evil iiillueiiee of the viei uis who are always found preying 
on the ij^uorant or lielph>ss. 

Steadfastness in such priiu'iples and walk of life, when unwaver- 
ingly exhibited by men wIiom" powers are respected, in associafioDB 
of rank and authority, and in times of trial, excitement, and con- 
llict of passions, exerts intluences ns valuable and widespread ns 
tlicy oi'o usually ui\spokeii. Nowhere, than in camj)s and the rndo 
nccosaitics and temptations of nuirtial life, is "this (juiet power of 
example more valuable, or more diflienlt to maintain. Dr. Snttor- 
Ico, enjoying the friendship of the most notable men of the service 
during forty years, ever maintained his characteristic fearless- 
ness in the condemnation of wrong, and in living out his sense of 
duty, without regard to human disfavor or criticism. 

As a physician and surgeon, ho became noted in that profession, 
more especially for rapid and successful judgment as an operator, 
and for tlio breadth of hia oxpcrionoo in the oxigcucioa of military 
632 



OKN. li. S. SAT'IMOHLEK. f) 

Borvioe, which !;a\i" hiiii a high rocoivl I'nr skilictl in'ovoutivti (•iiro 
of troopa !uul the I'llicitMit organizaUoii of :ii<i. The tkiU'nuiiuMl 
!icf imi (>rhi(A mi 11(1, and tlio coiubunition of nn intropitl but sagacious 
ju(li;iiu'nl, funiislu'd so apparoutly tlio requisite cliaractenBtica for 
success ami renown as a military loader, Ihut it would soem a cause 
of regret that his hit was not cast in the ilirecit lino of military com- 
mand and jiromolion, were not a true appreciation duo to a life 
spent in (he mil i:^a(i()u of iimnan Bufl'ering, regardless of personal 
peril or iliseond'orl ; lite promotion of human happiness without 
respect to reward, and the service of a diviim master in all situations 
and surroundings. 

Steadfast in purpose, steadfast in friendship, steadfast in the 
-ight as ho Boes it ; hia motto soonis over to have boou " stand fast." 
633 



IIOX. MIOITxVEL KoirroN. 

A^i^^vEW liviiiff mon havo readied the dirrnity of i-eT)rescntativc ot' 
^<^^ the peojjlo in the Senate of the great Excelsior State so 

^^ honorably, uprightly, and nobly, as the subject of our pres- 
ent sketch. Political honors, won by industry, perseverance, hon- 
esty of purpose, and a firm, unswerving adherence to the unalterable 
principles of truth and justice that lie at the foundation of the or- 
ganic law of this glorious land, may hn proudly worn by one who, 
tliough not born on the soil, has proved that he was racy of it. 

Senator Michael Norton may truly be ranked among the self-made 
public men of our day, who has arisen from a comparatively obscure 
boyhood to his present eminent position of honor and power, not by 
the appliances which wealth or an aristocratic ancestry can afford, 
but by the sheer force of industry and genuine uprightness of chai- 
acter. He is among the most energetic, honorable and successful 
men in political life, and for the past ten years that he has been in 
public life no man can point to a dishonorable action on his part 
Senator Norton was born in the County of Roscommon, Ireland, on 
Christmas Day, 1839, and is descended from a highly respectable 
family, embracing among its members, clergymen, doctors, antl repre- 
sentatives of the other learned professions. But reverses, which are 
so common in Ireland, overtook the family, and so we find that 
when the Senator was but five months old his fiither concluded to 
emigrate to the United States, where there would be a larger sphere 
of usefulness for himself and family. On their arrival in this coun- 
635 



2 HON. MirilAEr. NORTON. 

try they became residents of this city, and have always continued to 
do so. The Senator is not only a self-made man, but a self-edncatoil 
one, also, having only received six months' education in school. His 
})arents being then poor, and among strangers, Michael Norton had 
to go to work at a very early age. He has had an active and event- 
ful life, which, with his active turn of mind and good memory, he 
has made good use of, as he received his early training in that se- 
vere but useful school of the world — experience. In the pursuit of a 
livelihood, his young hands were hardened by honest toil at the 
early age of eight years; his flist employment being at a cracker 
manufactory, where he remained three years. His next situation 
was with the firm of Swift & Co., sugar refiners, where he remained 
five yeai-s, giving entu-e satisfaction to his employers for industry in 
applying himself to the interest of their business. He was now a 
youth of sixteen, a!id being of an adventurous turn of mind, and de- 
siring to see the world, he engaged himself on the Ocean Steam- 
ship " Atlantic," of the " Collins" line of steamers, as mess boy, 
and made several trips across the Atlantic in that capacity. At the 
expiration of his service in that vessel, he determined to learn a 
trade, and to settle down iu New York; he accordingly learned the 
coopers' trade, and worked dilligently thereat until 1861. 

When the firing on Fort Sumter took place in the Spring of that 
year, and the people of the Nortliern States, irrespective of party, 
rallied to support the Government, Mr. Norton relinquislied his 
business and enlisted as a private in the 25th Regiment, New York 
Volunteers. His course was all the more commendable, as he had 
just susUiined an irreparable loss in the recent demise of a well-be- 
lovod father — the wise guide of his youth, and the kind mentor of 
his opening manhood. This bereavement devolved uinm him the 
responsibility of supporting his family. His worth and abilities were 
Boon ajiprociated, and he was unanimously elected captain of Com- 
pany D. of the said regiment, and was mustered iu the service of 
the Unitod States in May of that year, being one of the enrUest to 

6:m 



HUN. MICHAEL NORTON. 3 

respond to flic call of the Goverumoiit. lie was in the field with 
his regiment about eight months when ho received the news of the 
severe illness of his mother, and that the whole care of the family 
rested on his shoulders. He was therefore comi)elled to resign his 
commission in the army and return to New York, which h-j did 
towards New Year, 1862. 

In December, 1862, he was urged to enter the political arena au;l 
become an independent democratic candidate for alderman of his 
ward. After consideration he concluded to accept the nomination, 
though he foresaw he was leading a forlorn hope, as the regular 
nominee, Alderman Henry, was at that time Piesident of the Board 
of Aldermen, with a vast amount of patronage at his back. There' 
were five candidates in the field, and though Mr. Norton was the 
. youngest and least known, he came out second in the race; 
having as competitors, besides Alderman Henry, such well-known 
public men as ex-Senator Woodruff, and Eecordcr Tillou. This 
large vote proved that Mr. Norton was a strong man with the peo- 
ple of his ward. In December, 1864, when a vacancy again occurred 
for Alderman, he re-entered the political field as the independent 
democratic candidate for alderman, the regular Tammany democratic 
candidate being George A. Barney, a well-known citizen, and 
James M. Tuthill being the republican candidate, and an outsider 
democratic candidate, Alexander McGan-on. This was a hard fight, 
it being generally conceded that on account of the democracy being 
divided into three parts that the republican candidate would succeed. 
But those who counted in this way did not know how strong Mr. 
Norton was with the masses, and to their surprise, Mr. Norton was 
elected alderman by a large plurality; this was considered a great 
triumph by his friends. Mr. Norton's course in the Board of Alder- 
men during this term gave general satisfaction; be proved himself an 
incorruptible and economical public officer, and in the several com- 
mittees of which he was a member, his straightforward course and 
practical common sense gained him the approval of all his fellow 



4 HON. MICHAEL NOKTON. 

I'itizons. Tn December, 1866, he was renominated, and received the 
regular Tammany Democratic nomination for alderman. lie was 
opposed by Terrenco Duffy, a very strong man, who received all the 
outside democratic nomination, and John Contrell, who was there- 
publican candidate. This was a very exciting election; the district 
composed the eighth and fifth wards. When the returns were an- 
nounced, Mr. Norton was re-elected by an overwhelming majority; in 
fact ho was so popular in his own ward (the eighth) that he only 
needed fifteen votes in the fifth ward to elect him. For the succeed- 
ing three years Mr. Norton continued to act as alderman of his 
district, attending faithfully to the interest and wants of his constitu- 
cuts, serving on some of the most important committees, having been 
ehairmun of the Committee of Streets, of Lamps, and Gas, and of the 
Joint Committee on Finance, and Wharves and Piers, all of which 
ho attended to faitiifuUy and zealously, advocating and insisting on 
an honest, economical, and efficient administration in our municipal 
government. He was a delegate to a number of State Conventions. 
Ho was also a delegate to the National Democratic Convention which 
met in Tammany Hall on the Fourth of July, 1868, and nominated 
Horatio Seymour as the democratic candidate for President of the 
United States. The Senator was now an active and zealous worker 
for the success of his party; he was now embarked in political life; 
he had an opportunity of forming extensive acquaintances with the 
leading statesmen in national and local" politics, and from his natural 
urbanity of manners, no less than his honesty and reliability, he at 
once became what he is to-day, one of the most popular of our pub- 
lic men, honored and esteemed by his friends — ^feared and respected 
by his opponents. Ho is guided essentially by his practical common 
sense, and it is a marvel how he is able to make his knowledge of 
politics available, and there are few men in political life who can cora- 
p ire with him in their control of men to carry their points. 

This was proven in a remarkable way in November, 18G7, when 
he received the regular Tammany Democratic nomination for Senator 
638 



HON. MICHAEL NORTON. 5 

of the District. This district, which comprises the Eighth, Ninth, 
Fifteenth and Sixteenth wards, was always looked to as sending a 
republican representative to the Senate, his predecessor being th-) 
Hon. Abraham Lent, a well-known republican ; yet Mr. Norton 
was elected by a large majority. His course as Senator was marked 
by the same characteristics of honesty and integrity which he had 
displayed in other fields of usefulness. He was closely attentive to 
the business of the Senate, and took a deep interest in all matters of 
genera] legislation. His genial disposition and temperament won 
for him many friends, who sustained him in matters affecting hi.^ 
own district, in which he was interested, and in which he has been 
usually successful. During this term his party was in a minority in 
the State Senate. 

Mr. Norton lays no claim to oratory, and has devoted no time to 
the cultivation of rhetoric. Whenever he desired to address the Senate 
to support or condemn a measure, he expressed his views in plain 
English, and bluntly to the point at issue, so that he met with 
unvarying success. He has, by close application and untiring energy, 
fitted himself for the high position he now holds, much better than 
most men, who have had the advantages and benefits of a collegiate 
or academical training. His motto has always been — 

" All honest course will end well." 

In November, 18(59, he was again a candidate, and received the 
regular Tammany Democratic nomination for Senator of his district 
This time he was again opposed by an outside candidate in his own 
party, in the person ofex-AldermanFlynn, as well as the republican 
candidate, Hon. Jacob Sharpe, well known as a shrewd and wily 
politician. Senator Norton entered into this political race with his 
usual energy and will. 

The result of this election was a majority for Senator Norton 
over both of his opponents combined. He re-entered the Senate 
last January, and was appointed Chairman of the Committee ou 
639 



6 HON. MKMl.VK.r, NOKTON. 

lloalth. Towns and Oonntii's, and a iiuiulicr of th(> Oonimittocs on 
Claims and Privilop;os, and Elect inns. 

Ho has laithrully watched over the interests of his constituents, 
and his plain, honest speaking, together with his integiity, have 
comhined to make him one the best known and popular of our State 
Senators. Recognizing in him eminently the honest and fearless 
advocate of riglit, the public press flung out his banner and inscribed 
thereon the cvcr-memorable motto, " Michael Norton, the Thundei-- 
bolt of the people," a name that his friends and admirers delight to 
call him. 

The highly honorable record that Senator Norton has thus far 
made in public and private life opens up the vista of a brilliant 
future, in which higher honors, unsought for, will devolvi? upon him 
at the hands of an intelligent and grateful people. He is still a young 
man, being only in his thirty-second ye^r. He stands at the thresh- 
hold of a bright and prosperous cai-eer, and there is hardly any office 
or trust in the National or St>ito Government which he may not 
aspire to. 

1 1 redounds to the credit of Senator Norton that he has ever been 
true to his friends, prompt in the fulfillment of his engagements^ 
and always studying the interest and welfare of his constituents; 
and in return they have proved to him how they have appreciated 
him for it, by always increasing his majorities, whenever he i>resented 
himself before them for their suffrages. 

In personal appearance. Senator- Norton is above the medium 
hcMght, well proportioned and errect. He is fair-complexioned, hi t 
head is large, with intelligent and handsome features, his eyes &\\\ 
blue, denoting large sympathy and bouevolenco. His large and gen- 
erous heart is always supplemented by an open hand. He moves 
with an active step and shows he has jihysical endurance and energy- 
In his intercourse with his fellow men he is kind and unatlecte.l. 
The integrity of character and genial quilities of such men as Sena- 
tor Norton give tone and pleasure -to political life. For his unblem- 
6 10 



HON. MICIIAKL NORTON. 7 

ished character as a public man, as well as his personal appearance, 
Mr. Norton does credit to the race from whence he sprang. Of men 
with such noble characteristics, his adopted country may truly be 
proud. They are a credit to any race or nation, and the land that can 
boast the largest number will the longest endure, as long as liberty, 
truth and justice govern amongst men. 
641 



ISAIAH BLOOD. 

We extract the following complimentary 8l«tch from "Life SketcheB of Executive 
TrZ t°:>.*^^f^„"« °f '^ legislature of the State of New York," publinh,^ l^r 
h. C. Hutchins 4 H. If. Boone, Albany. ^ 



^vf^^^^'^^ ^^^ ■''^^' '^^""^^-"- ^^^"^ tLe Fifteenth District, was 
^j^ bom at BallBton, Saratoga County, February 13, 1810. 
^^'- HiB father, Sylvester Blood, was a manufacturer of scythes, 
a business which he established up.ward of sixty years ago. 

Isaiah received only a district-school education. Leaving school, 
he entered his father's establishment as an apprentice to the trade.' 
His energetic industiy was early developed. He worked as no 
other boy in the shop worked. When he had mastered the calling 
he took his place as a journeyman, receiving as wages eighty-seven 
cents a day. 

In February, 1831, Mr. Blood was united in marriage to Miss 
Gatf«, of BaUston. At this time hLs father had a branch establish- 
ment some tliree miles from his principal place in a lonely re<non 
known as "The Hollow," on the road between Ballston and Sara- 
toga. When Isaiah was married, his father offered him a choice 
between taking charge of the shops in the Hollow or of a store in 
winch he had an interest. The son chose the shops, and the new- 
ly married couple moved to a house adjoining the works. Here 
still working for eighty-seven cents a day, Isaiah Blood labored for 
three years, and his wife, a true helpmeet and a noble woman 
eked out her husband's scanty income by taking the workmen al 
boarders. 

Thus these two. whose later lives have been blessed with abun- 
dant wealth, toiled bravely and cheerfully through the time that 
643 



2 ISAI.Vn LiLOOT). 

tested, best of all, the quality of their lieaits. Before the end of 
the three yeai-s Mr. Blood had gained an enviable reputation as a 
workman. His constant endeavor was to improve the quality of tlio 
goods turned out at his father's establishment. His skill did not 
escape observation, and after a time there came to the young me- 
chanic a capitalist from Watertown, N. T., who offered to lend him 
$10,000 and to set him up in business in that city. When this fact 
reached the ears of the elder Mr. Blood he sensibly concluded that 
it was desirable to retain his son's services, so he offered him a part- 
nership, which Isaiah accepted. 

The spirit of enterprise which possessed the young man obtained 
now a fuller scope for action. He soon proposed to erect new 
buildings, repair the old ones, improve the machinery, employ more 
hands and extend the business far beyond what were then its limits. 
His fatJier doxibted the expediency of these innovations, whereupon 
the son, backed by his fortune, which consisted then almost solely 
of pluck and industry, offered to buy out the whole establishment 
and pay for it a given sum within a fixed tiuie. 

The bargain was struck, and before the time had expired the 
money was paid. 

In the mean time Blood's scythes were acquiring a grear reputa- 
tion with the farmers not only of New York but of adjoining 
States. In 1S52, the manufacture of axes was added to the business. 
At the present time there is scarcely a farmer in the country but 
speaks of these implements in terms of high praise. The enormous 
growth of Senator Blood's business, since he assumed its sole man- 
agement, affords a striking illustration of what can be done by 
industry and enterprise when these qualities are united to integrity 
and liberality. His trade now extends through all the Southern 
and "Western States, including California and Oregon, and he ex- 
ports scythes in large quantities to Australia as well as to Canada. 
An idea of it* magnitude may be gleaned from the fact that a sin- 
gle firm in St. Louis sold, last year, two thousand dozen of Blood's 
axes. In these two branches of industry he employs more than 
644 



rSAIAn BLOOD. 3 

two hundred men. His manufactory of BCjthes is the largest of 
the kind in the world. 

In jjoliticB Senator Blood has heen a life-long and consistent 
Dernof.rat. He was chosen at an early age supervisor of the town 
of Milton (in which Ballston is located), and this office has been 
conferred upon him very many times since. In 1859 he was nomi- 
nated for State Senator, and although the district had usually gone 
strongly Republican, he was nevertheless elected by a handsome 
majority. He had had some experience in military matters, having 
attained to the rank of major in the State militia, and was there- 
fore placed on the Military Committee of the Senate. This appoint- 
ment seemed of little significance when it was made, but subsequent 
events gave to "the acts of that committee a great and lasting im- 
portance. It was during Mr. Blood's first term in the Senate that 
Sumter was fired upon and the war began. He entered, with all 
the remarkable energy of his character, into the patriotic ardor 
which that event inspired. It was largely owing to his efiVjrts that 
the Military Committee, with unexampled promptness, reported a 
bill jjledging the credit of the State for the necessary expense of 
putting in the field ISTew York's full quota of volunteers. 

Retiring from the Senate at the close of the year 1861, Mr. Blood 
devoted his attention once more to his business, but he continued 
to take a deep interest in the welfare of our troops. From his 
ample fortune he contributed most liberally to the aid of the fami- 
lies of our soldiers. His charity, however, was most unostentatious. 
The well-spring of his bounty was a kindly heart and not the mere 
love of approbation. Many a poor family in Saratoga County 
blesses the name of Isaiah Blood to-day, but his good deeds are not 
advertised in public places. 

When the political canvass of 1869 commenced, great interest was 
manifested by both parties in regard to the possession of doubtful 
senatorial districts. The Democrats, apparently, had small chance 
of success in the fifteenth, but when it was announced that Mr. 
Blood had consented to become a candidate the hopes of his friends 

64r, 



wore greivtly raised. Nor were those linpes doomed to disappoint- 
niont, for, at the eloetion which followed, Senator Blood received 
more than two thousand majority over his competitor, the Hon. 
Truman G. Younglove, late Sjieaker of the Assembly. 

As a Senator Mr. Blood is a hard-working, conscientious re})re- 
sentative of tlie mil of his constituents ; not given to speech-making, 
but faithful in his attention to duty. 

In pei-sonal appearance he is of medium height, of vigorous frame, 
and of line complexion, lie weare the weight of his yeai-s lightly, 
anil does not appear to be more than fifty yoai-s old. His eyes are 
bright and clear, his i'eatnres regular, and his forehead broad and 
high. His hair, which originally was of a light brown color, is 
beginning to turn gray. 

Senator Blood has only one chLld living, a daughter, who is 
married to Henry Knickerbocker, Esq., a distinguished broker of 
the city of Kew York. She is a lady of rare graces and accom- 
plishments. 

The following estimate of Senator Blood's character was kindly 
furnished to the compiler of this volume by Judge Geo. G. Scott, 
of Saratoga : — 

Mr. Blood was born sixty yeai-s ago. Although in veal's the 
Nestor of the Senate, he is, nevertheless, in physical and mental 
vigor, as well as in personal appearance, a young man — younger 
indeed than many at forty-five. He comes from a long-lived stock. 
His grandfather was yet living when he (Mr. Blood) was also a 
grandfather. The instance of^'tv generations, by direct descent, in 
one family, all living at the same time, has not often occurred since 
the days of the antediluvians. 

Senator Blood is a native of the old Democratic town of Ballston, 
and the eldest child of the Lite Sylvester Blood. He received a 
good common-school education, and was brought up to the business 
of his father, to wit, manufacturing scythes. About 1837 he bought 
out his father, who owTied a small scythe factory upon the Kayado- 
rosseras, at " Blood's Hollow," now " BlootlvilK',"' a mile and a lialf 
G4(J 



ISAIAH BLOOD. 



north of Ballston Spa. By strict attention to bis buBinesB, he wah 
enabled in a few years to enlarge his establishment to its present 
capacity, including the additional business of manufacturing axes. 
" Blood's scythes " and " Blood's axes" are favorably known through- 
out most of the agricultural portions of North America. By this 
business, in connection with some fortunate speculations, he has 
succeeded in amassing a large fortune. We do not venture to set 
down the figures, for we might miss them by lialf a million. 

Senator Blood has an iron constitution, and an indomitable will 
His capacity for the rapid transaction of business is marvelous, 
and whatever he does is invariably well done. He seems intu- 
itively to thoroughly undei-stand every one with whom he comes 
in contact. 

He is foremost in the promotion of all public enteq^rises, and 
responds liberally to -the demands incessantly made upon him for 
religious and charitable purposes. 

It is fortunate to the State to have such men as Senator Blood 
in the Legislature. But extraordinary business capacity and accu- 
rate knowledge of men, such as he possesses, are peculiarly adapted 
to arduous and responsible administrative positions. 

He was bom and educated a Democrat, and has always adhered 
to the faith. His rMmt in politics was in 18i7, when he was elected 
supervisor of the Whig town of Milton by 147 majority. In 1851, 
he was elected member of Assembly from the first Assembly district 
of Saratoga County ; in the spring of 1859, again supervisor of 
Milton ; and in the fall of that year, Senator from tlie fifteenth 
district, then composed of the present fifteenth district, except 
Schenectady. In 1862 he was the Democratic candidate for 
Reprc-sentative in Cf/ngress for the eighteenth Congressional dis- 
trict, but the adverse current was too potent for flesh and llood 
to stem ; neverthelass he made a gallant resistance. Four or five 
years ago, the Ilepublicans captured Milton from the Demo- 
crats, who had then held the town for several years, and the con- 
querors bore sway as if their dominion were permanent. But in 
647 



6 ISAIAH HLOOn. 

IStiit Air. liliuiil Wild l)ronji;lit out against their strongest man fur the 
BUi>ervisoi'sliii>, ami elected by twenty -seven majority. Last fall lie 
carried the lilteenth Senate district by a majority of two thousand 
over the llepnMican Achilles, Speaker Younglove, reversing tho 
maji)rity of 1SG8, and caiTying with him_/ti'tJ Democratic members 
of Assembly, in the place ofjt'rc' Republican membei-s of the previ- 
ous year. This extraordinary result demonstrated his strength 
before the people, has attracted the attention of politicians, and 
placed him promiuently on tho list of tho coming men of the Em- 
pire State. 

Since writing the above, Mr. Blood has been re-elected supervisor 
by a majority of 429, a gain of :t02 over his majority in 1860. 
648 




^^::^^^;fl^^-<2i:^^2^^'^^ 




ELIAS PAEKMAN NEEDHAM. 

'LIAS PAKKMAN NEEDIIAM was born in Delaware 
County, New York, Sept. 29th, 1812. In early life he 

~^^ received no education that could have fitted him in the 
least for the important part he has taken in the progress of instru- 
mental music. The common school was his only college, and 
afforded hut meagre opportunities for advancement in knowledge 
He is pre-eminently a man of progress and the architect of his 
own fortune. His life has been devoted to the business of his 
choice, and of this we shall briefly speak. 

In the range of musical instruments, the piano and the pipe- 
organ are extremes. The peculiar adaptation of the latter for the 
rendering of the long, measured tones of the old choral is only 
more strikingly exhibited in view of the clumsy and reluctant 
manner in which the " king of musical instruments " submits to 
that pei-version of its tones, now-a-days fashionable, which forces 
it into the lively measures of orchestral music ; while, on the other 
hand, the percussive instrumentation of the piano renders it almost 
wholly incapable of yielding the dignified and soothing effects of 
strictly religious strains. Between these two the nineteenth cen- 
tury has given birth to an instrument which, while possessing 
certain advantages, common to both its pipe and string confreres, 
is also as well adapted for the performance of the severest styles of 
church music as for the aii-s and fantasies of the opera and the 
dance. This invention, which started under the name of the 
melodeon, and is now more popularly known as the reed or jiarlor 
organ, holds the same relationship to keyed wind instruments 
640 



9 K h 1 A > 1* A H K M A N N K K nil A M . 

that tho violin does to instnnnonts of tho t^tiiiiged class; and its 
rosourocs arc as ready for tlio pi-oduction of 

" Liiikotl sweotuoss Iohjj drnwn out," 

as for tho roudoring of the most brilliant staccato effects. Now it 
mav accompany the voice through the '* Old ITuudreth," and, anon, 
till in, witli grace and vivacity, the breathing places of a fashion- 
able ballad. Having thus an almost niiiversal adaptability, and 
possessing a quality of tone to so high a degive sympathetic as to 
render it, fsxr more than the piano or the pipe-organ, t/i<< home 
instnimcni ; its convenient size, its cheapness, and its beauty and 
variety of form have added their forces to tho attractions which 
have nnidcred the rood organ, in some one of its vai-ious forms, the 
siiH- qua non of tho musical wedth of the household. 

Mr. Necdham's whole life is densely identitied with the origin, 
progress, and perfection of these instnmients ; indeed, to him, 
moi-o thiui to any other American, is due whatever merit may be 
accorded for tho superiority of construction, manufacture, and im- 
provement in tone whi(>h they h.-ivo attained. 

In youth he diligently applied himself to IciU-ning the trade of a 
joiner, which in connection with a naturally accurate mechanical 
genius, early displayed by him, will accomit for the perfect work- 
manship of the '' Silver-Tongue " organs. 

In lS35,Mr. Needham becmue acquainted with Jeremiah Ci\r- 
hart, whose genius had already given birth to a variety of inven- 
tions, then xindetenuined in vahie. From among these, with an 
ahm->st prophetic judgment, Mr. Neodham selected tlio improve- 
ments whit'h have immortiUized Mr. Carhart as tho creator of the 
melodeon, and their practical embodiment was the souive of a for- 
tune. Thus were linked together two names which have become 
so well known to the public and associated with the progress of 
reed instruments — " Carhart and Netnlham " — a union which only 
tho death of the former- terminated. The history of tho tinu is 
well kno\vn. Their i-emoval to New York City from Buffalo in 
(iJO 



RI.IAS I'AIirCMAN NKEDIIAM. o 

8 

184-, andtheir iual.ility to meet the fast growing demands of their 
busmess m tl.e large building which they at first oeeupied in 
Thirteenth Street, and their final establishment of the extensive 
" Silver-Tongno " manufactory on Twenty-third Street. For nrmy 
years the junior partner of the firm was actively engaged in the 
business management of the house, and left the experimenting part 
to Mr. Carhart, who in due time brought the melodeon to its 
present state of iwrfection. 

Mr. Needham assumed the financial arrangements of the house 
and the detail of every part of -the manufacture. He applied him' 
self to his work early and late, toiling with hands, eye, and brain ■ 
planning, organizing, and accomplishing his business. Mr Carhart 
conceived delicate and ingenious machinery, without which success 
could never have been attained. Mr. Needham carried out those 
Ideas m hard material, and set them successfully operatino- in the 
hands of skilful men. He has now in his employ superior work- 
men, who have been with him more than twenty years, and have 
given to the reed organ maunfacture almost the whole of their 
working lives. 

The same talent which had instituted and carried out success- 
tully a new branch of American manufacture showed itself capable 
of comprehending every demand of that interest. The growing taste 
for reed music caused other melodeon factories to be built, and in a 
short time something more than a single set of reeds began to be 
called for. At this time Mr. Needham gave his attention to in- 
creasing the power and variety of tone. But nothing could l,e 
accomplished towards a combination of sets until a perfect "stop" 
should be discovered. In this he finally succeeded, and the 
achievement made the reed organ and melodeon both complete 
and at a moderate price. ' 

The first perfect three-set harmonium made by the house was 
the result of Mr. Needham's ingenuity, study, and perseverance 
It was a complete success, and, with minor improvements by him 
forms the triple reed " SUver-Tongue " of to-day. 
651 



4: EMAS I'AUKMAN NEEDIIAM. 

Mr. Needham's inventive powers have not alone been confined 
to the department of musical manufactm-e. The news of the suc- 
cessful establishment of pneumatic lines of transit in England 
early attracted his attention, and he shortly discovered that by the 
method there in use a large proportion of the power must be wasted, 
and the highest degree of speed remain unattainable. To obviate 
these defects he devised the American improvement in "Pneu- 
matics ways," which is known as the " endless current." His plan 
has been pronounced by competent engineers the best which has 
ever been contrived, and it will doubtless become the exclusive 
method of operating "American ways." 

Mr. jSTeedham is still actively engaged in the manufacture of the 
" Silver-Tongues " as the head of the firm of " E. P. Needham & 
Son." His love of experiment, and zeal for the improvement of 
his favorite instrument remaining undiminished. He has lately 
completed a new "Tremolo," which, for simplicity, durability, 
and sweetness of tone combined, promises to surpass any now in 
use. Mr. Needham's success in business is due not only to his 
unremitting application, but also to the real merits of his instru- 
ments, which are being appreciated by the public in every city, 
town, and village. 

652 



GEOEGE TEMPLE STROl^G. 



^ ^MONG the men of true moral worth and fine social 
..^^g stauding in oar empire city, there are few or none more 
deserving of the position they occupy in public esteem 
than the subject of this sketch. 

George Temple Strong was born in the city of New York 
January 26, 1820. He is the son of George W. Strong and 
Ehzabeth Templeton Strong. His father belonged to an old New 
England family, and was for many years a prominent member ot 
the NewTork bar, distinguished for his professional learnino- and 
ability, and for his worth and fidelity in every relation ot" life 
His mother, Elizabeth Templeton, was a daughter of one of the 
leading merchants of New York, and a member of its Chamber of 
Commerce imtil his death in 1792. 

Mr. Strong was educated at Columbia College when it was in its 
most flourishing state, and graduated with high honors in 1838 
Afterwards he applied himself to the study of law diligently, and, 
though young in years, was admitted to the bar in 1841 with 
marked distinction. Exhibiting great ability in his profession he 
was made counselor in 1844. Since this time he has continued in 
a successful career. 

In 1847 he was elected to the membership of the vestry of 
Trmity Church, which office he now holds. He was elected Trus- 
tee of Colu,nbia College in 1853, and tliis office also he continues 
to hold with honor. 

In 1848 Mr. Strong married Ellen Euggles, the beautiful and 
accomplished daughter of Hon. Samuel B. Euggles, a man of wide 
653 



O GEOROK TEMPLE STRONG. 

reputation, and one almost univei-sally esteemed in the literary 
world. Mi-s. Strong is an accomplished lady, of tine literary taste, 
and a great favorite in New York society. Besides, she is remark- 
ably beautiful, and time but touches lightly while it does not im- 
pair her pci-sonal charms. 

Mr. Strong holds a high place in the estimation of every New 
Yorker. In times of need he is one of the solid men who are 
looked to for help. During our late war he took an active part in 
many works of benevolence, never pivssing by on the other side 
any who sought charity or counsel from him. On the breaking 
out of the Eehellion, in IStU, Mr. Strong was elected treasurer of 
the United States Sanitary Commission, then established by the 
Government, and was also a member of its executive committee, 
which met daily in New York until the close of the war, excepting 
during the sessions of the committee itself at "Washington and 
elsewhere. Mr. Strong has never taken an active part in politics, 
but during our late civil war he gave his influence and unqualitied 
support in behalf of the Government and the Union cause, devoting 
much time and labor to the Sanitary Commission and auxiliary 
societies. 

In 1S03 he committed himself with untiring zeal and energy, 
thereby necessitating the sacrifice of the greater part of his time, 
to the founding and perfection of the " Union League Club," of 
New York City, which Club rendered such substantial service to 
the Government in organizing the loyal men of the city, and 
raising men and means generally for the national cause. 

Within the past year Mr. Strong has been elected president of 
the "Church Music Association," and of the "Philharmonic 
Society," of New York city. He is noted as a gentleman of 
pleasing manners and address, and is possessed of a handsome 
figure and a physiognomy expressive of much benevolence and 
good-will. Those who know him intimately, esteem him most 
highly for his unblemished moral character and eminent social 
.ind intellectual virtues. With all the estimable qualities of head 
054 



GBOROE TKMPLE STRONG. 



and heart which have signaled Mr. Strong a., a worthy citizen 
with his well-known energy and enterprize always directed in an 
enlightened channel, and with an ability and willingness to do 
good, as abundantly evidenced in the past, it is but reasonable to 
predict for him a career of usefulness in the future, while it is but 
just to rank him among the progressive men of the times. 
655 




///^.4.^ 



BENJAMIN F. SANDS. 



EAR ADMIRAL EENJAM^f F. SANDS, TJnited 
States Navy, the subject of this sketch, was bora in the 
._,. ^*^te of Maryland in the year 1812, and in April, 1828 
waa appointed a Mid^Ujrmm in the Navy from Kentucky, to which 
State he had, with his father's family, removed a few years 
previonsly. 

His studies in his adopted profe.ssion were be^Tin at Norfolk Va • 
and in October, 1828, he wa.s attached to the sloop of war " Vandalia '' 
in which vessel he made his first craise. Upon the return of this vessd 
to port, after the expiration of the cruise, he was detached and ordered 
to the sloop of war "St. Louis," which made a cruise of two years 
m the West Indies. He received his warrant as Passed Midshim- 
rrmn on the 14th of June, 1834. lu 1836 he was ordered to duty 
on the U. S. Coast Survey, of which the late Mr. F. E. Hassler, of 
sdentific renown, was then superintendent. 

Displaying great aptitude for this service, he was retained on this 
duty without interruption until 1841-receiving during that time, in 
March, 1840, his promotion to the grade of Lieutenant. 

In 1842, he was attached to the line-of-battle ship "Columbus," 
which joined the Mediterranean squadron-serving on that vessel 
until 1844, when he was detached and ordered upon special duty. 

In 1846, he was attached to the Naval Observatory, an institution 
then in its infancy, under Lieutenant M. F. Mauiy, who was super- 
intendent thereof-and after a year's service there he was detached 
and ordered to the Home Squadron, then cruising in the Gulf off the 
Mexican coast, and was present at the passage up the Tobasco Eiver 
aud in the affair at Tol>asco on the 1.5th .lune, 1847. 
657 



l>iirins>- tho voiu-s 184v'^-40 mul '.">0, lio oruisod on I lie ci>ast <>f 
AtVicii ; for a short, time on ttio .sUiop of war " Yorktown," mul 
tinitdiod Iho cruiso in ooninisuul o{ tlio brijj " Porpoiso," ondoavoring 
to bixvik up flio odious traHic- in slavos then i-airiod on to so gn-iit an 
extent. 

In 1851, at. the urgent request of Prof. A. D. Itaehe, wlio sueeeedod 
the hite A[r. Ilassh'r, ho was nttaclied again to the U. S. Coast Sur- 
vey, and was engaged in tho Topographical and Hvdrograpliieal sur- 
vey of our troast line and its adjaoent wateis from 1851 to 18.")8 — the 
tieM of his work during that period being fii>ni Long Island to the 
coast of Texas. 

In September, 1855, he received his comuiission as Comtmmder, 
and in 185S> was ordennl to duty in the Hureau of Construction, and 
in 18(>1 was placed in cliargo of tho Hydrography of tho Western 
Ctuist, at the special lequest of l*ix>f. Bache. lie remained there 
until 18(>3, in July of which year he was jM-omoted to the gnuie of 
Ciipfoi'n. 

In (V'tober of that year the war of the rebellion having assumed 
such pivportions that he felt it his duty to bo among more active 
scones than tho coast of California presente^l — and, without waiting 
to i-ecoivo the ordei-s he had applied for, ho turned over his charge 
to another and proceoiling direct to Washington, obtained command 
of the slix>p of wjvr " Dacotah," and iu a few days joined the fleet 
engaged blockading the two inlets to Cape Fear Kiver, which aftbixled 
peculiar facilities for vessels running the blockade with provisions 
and clothing for the Confederate forces. In February, 18ti3, en- 
gjiged ii\ an attack on " Fort Caswell,*' which, however, terminated 
without important results. In 18t>4:, he was solecteil by the Navy 
Department to take command of the tltree-turreted iivn-clad " Roan- 
oke," on the occasioTi of her trial trip fivm New York to Hampton 
Roads and soon at\erwai\ls was transferred to the steamer " Fort 
Jackson," and upon his return to the blocting fleet made several 
captures of \ alnables prizes. 

Frvnu 1802 to lSi>5, he was for the most of the time the Divisional 
658 



Commander, and under his disp^jBitioriH of tlie blockading fleet, the 
inlete were most Ktctirely blockaded, and veamh and cargoes to tlie 
value of several millions of doUars were captnred or (hatroy&l. lie 
pailicipated in the two engagements with Fort Fislier of December 
25th and 26th, 1864, and January 15th and 16th, 1S65, his vtsisel 
on both occasions being in the front and under the heavy fire of the 
rebel batteries. In the land assault on the Fort by the sailors from 
the fleet in c^^njunction with the army under General Terry, which 
resulted in the capture of the Fort, the two sons of Captain Sands, 
who followed the profession of their father, were in the front with 
detachments from the vesseLs to which they were attached and were 
complimented in the rejxjrts of their commanding officers. 

Captain Sands was recommended for promotion for gallant and 
distinguished service* in these engagements which resulted in so 
complete a victory. 

In the February following he was ordered to command the division 
blockading the coast of Texas, and the articles of surrender of the 
rebel Trans-'Missis.sippi forces to General Canby of the United States 
army were signed t»y General E. Kirby Smith and Major-General 
I. Bankhead Magruder, on board of his slup, the " Fort Jackson," 
on the 2d of June, 1865, and formal possession of Galveston was 
taken by Captain Sands, who landed with a detachment of sailors 
and marine and hoisted the Union flag over the last foothold of the 
rebellion. 

He was afterwards ordered to the Boston Xavv Yard ; but receiv- 
ing, Jnly 25, 1 866, his promotion to the grade of Commodore, was 
detached therefrom, and, becaase of his peculiar fitness for the posi- 
tion, was selected, in ilay, 1867, to succeed Eear-Admiral Davis in 
the superintendency of the Naval Observatory at 'Washington— that 
officer having been assigned to the command of the Brazih'an 
Squadron. 

Under Commodore Sands' administration of the aflairs of that 
institution were made the Eclij^se Oh^servations by the Xaval Obser- 
vatory party in August, 1867, the lesulu of whose lalxirs were pub- 
659 



4 B E N .t A M I N F . S A N n S . 

lished in 1868, and have received the fa\oi-able criticism of the 
whole scientific world. It was also owing to his energy and pei-se- 
verance that a party was sent from the Observatory by the Navy 
Deparinieut to observe the Eclipse of the Sun at Gibraltar and at 
Syracuse, Sicily. He was promoted to the grade of Kear Admiral 
on the 27th of April, 1871. 

660 



JOEDAI^ L. MOTT. 



jORDAX L. MOTT, the founder of Motthaven and J. L. 
Mott Iron Works, now successfully carried on in the city 
of New York, was bom on the 12th day of October, 1798, 
and died May 8, 1806. His ancestors came to America in 1636 
from England, and filled very important positions in the govern- 
ment of tlie colony. 

Mr. Mott has been long known as an inventor and manufac- 
turer, having contributed, perhai)s, more than any man living to 
the early adoption and almost universal use of anthracite as a fuel, 
and also to the superiority and beauty of stoves and all other iron 
castings of a household kind. 

Since he first conceived, designed, and cast stoves and ranges for 
the use of coal, he has accomplished steady and continual improve- 
ments in the economical, healthful, and otherwise advantageous 
adaptation thereof. 

His first patent appears in 1632, and others succeeded every year 
from that time until his retirement from active business in ;1853. 

His name occurs as many as fifty times upon the records of the 
Patent OflSce, and he is known to have registered five patents in a 
single year for as many different things. The patents obtained 
were for stoves, fire-places, cast-iron columns for buildings, bathing 
tubs, pivot chairs, car-wheels, corebars for molding pipes, com- 
bined furnaces, and caldrons for farm use, specimens of which 
are seen in and about New York daily, by any careful observer. 

At the age of fifteen, he also invented a labor-saving machine 
for weaving. General Harvey, in 1847, testified that "Mott's ad- 
mirable arrangements for burning small coal caused its speedy 
661 



introiliu'tioii t'ur domestic, luechaiiiciil, and maimtac-turing pi 



By expi'iimonting with ditfercnt patterns of stoves of liis own 
make witli different degrees of heat, he found by paneling, curv- 
ing, fluting, and other devices, how to prevent tlie cracking of 
stoves by their expansion when hot, and tJieir contraetiuii when 
cooling off. 

Through his sagacity and inventive genius, cupola furnaces were 
brought into general use throughout the whole country, instead of 
blast furnaces ; also by his various improvements the rough, coarse, 
heavy castings of the latter were exchanged for the beautiful, 
smooth, light plates of the former. 

"What Dupont accomplished iu behalf of a progress that, directly 
or indirectly, enhances the good of the public at large, by substi- 
tuting the tine, polished, powerful powder of the present day, for 
the poor, dirty article used by om* ancestors — what Gail Borden of 
Galveston, Texas, did by inventing his meat biscuit, for preserving 
the nutritious properties of meat in a most convenient form — what 
Hoe did by his inventions iu regard to printing-presses — and what 
Ericsson did in the substitution of the propeller and monitor for 
the old-fashioned side-wheel steamship, J. L. Mott accomplished in 
the way of stoves and ranges for the more speedy, economical, and 
most excellent preparation of food for the body, which, in the end, 
by giving it health and strength becomes food for the mind. 

He is justly entitled to the esteem and grateful remembrance 
of his countrymen as a public benefactor. In few departments of 
manufacture has there been so much improvement in the last half 
century, as in that of stoves ; and as the present J. L. Mott has 
been educated to the business, and, besides being a skilltul me- 
chanic, is a talented gentleman with ample time and means, we 
have assurance, if such a thing is possible, that still further im- 
provements in such invaluable articles as cooking stoves and ranges 
will follow when required. 

The J. L. Mott Iron Works, New York City, besides their cele- 
662 



JORDAN L. MOTT. g 

brated stoves and ranges, manufacture all kinds of hollow ware, 
vases, and statues representing the Seasons, as well as historical and 
mythological characters. 

A visit to and an examination of the J. L. iMott Iron "Works, 
was inrleed an instructive lesson to the writer hereof, as what he 
saw called to mind many things long forgotten, and afforded pleas- 
ant food for reflection in the future. As an inventor and puhlic 
benefactor, the founder of the J. L. Mott Iron Works has received 
the approbation and appreciation of his fellow-men. 

Success attended his efforts, and he amassed a fortune, which 
was judiciously devoted, as well for purposes of doing good when- 
ever an appeal was made for the exercise of an enlightened gener- 
osity as for the advancement of legitimate busine^ enterprise. 

The memory of his public and private virtues is treasured by 
his relations, friends, and acquaintances, while an appropriate mon- 
ument marks the place where he peacefully rests, the lovely city of 
the dead, beautiful Greenwood! 

" Peace hath its victories as well as war," and from the success 
which attended the life-struggle of J. L. Mott, although his battle 
was peaceful and bloodless, his victory was beneficent and glorious. 
663 



RICHARD B. CARPENTER. 



BY P. B. FOrKE. 



0it^^i3s HE subject of this sketch was born in Belvidere, Lamoille 
TiJIb County, Vt., January 1st, 1825. His father was a Dnita- 
/^^ rian clergyman, devoted to his profession, and celebrated 
for his good sense, piety and hospitality. His mother was a 
woman of culture and refinement. In childhood he was very deli- 
cate ; and when about twelve years of age, it became evident that 
his constitution could not endure that rigorous climate, he was sent 
to Ohio, to reside with an nncle. He attended the common school 
and academy, for a few years, and while yet a boy, went to Ken- 
tucky, where lie taught school and studied law with the late Gov- 
ernor James T. Morehead. Subsequently he graduated at the Cin- 
cinnati law school, and was admitted to the bar of the Court of 
Appeals January 1st, 1846. He commenced the practice of law in 
Covington, Ky., and rose rapidly in his profession. He was married 
to Miss E. A. Perrin, April lYth, 1847. Five children have blessed 
their union, four of whom are living. He was elected Common- 
wealth's attorney in 1851, and discharged the duties of that office with 
distinguished ability, until September 25th, 1855, when he resigned. 
The condition of the West, at that time, was not favorable for the 
preservation of specimens of his eloquence ; but if any reliance can 
be placed in traditions, and if success, entire and complete, is any 
criterion of ability, he mu-st be pronounced one of the greatest ora- 
tors of our age and country. His most celebrated speeches were in 
the prosecution of Howard for murder, in La Grangi\ in 1852, and 
of Matt. F. "Ward, for the same crime, at Elizabethtown, in 1853. 
In the former case, the prisoner was defended by the late James 
Guthrie, and other eminent counsel, and was convicte<l of murder 
66-, 



'J U I (' 11 A U n « . C A K r K N T K It . 

contrary to iniblie expei'tiition, no such event having occurred in that 
State for tifteeii _voai-s prior to that time. He conducted the whole 
prosecution with rare tact and skill, and his speech to the jury, judg- 
ing from the meagre rei>orts in the newsjiapoiv, was one of surpt\ssing 
power and eloquence. Tlie iiistory of the Ward case is still fresh in 
tlie minds of readei-s. He shot Prof. Butler in his own house, be 
cause of some punislunent inflicted upon a brother, who was one of 
the pupils in the professor's school. He wjvs indicted in Louisville, 
but the excitement was so great, that an application for change of 
venue wiis made and granted, and the case was ti'ied in Hardin 
C'onnty. "Ward was defended by Mr. Crittenden, T. F. Mai-sluxll, 
Gov. Helm, and other distinguished gentlemen. His family, the 
"Wards, Johnsons, and Flournoys, were wealthy and influential in 
that State, and by means that are not necessary to be stuted here, 
he was acquitted. Throughout that celebrated trial, lasting thirteen 
days, Mr. Carpenter, then a slight, sallow-looking young man, wjis 
the centre of attraction ; and his speech, in opening this prosecution, 
replete with ai'gument and eloquence, has been widely circulated, 
and needs no encomium from us. Mr. Ciu-penter, notwitlistaiuling 
his largo practice before the war, gave much attention to politics, 
and was an able and influential leader iu the Democratic piuty. He 
did not aspire to olKce. of a purely political character, but he im- 
pressed his views strongly upon those who did. His power wjis ex- 
hibited in moulding public opinion, shaping events, and inaugurat- 
ing reforms for the general welfare. Perhaps no man h.os a more 
profound contempt for official trappings, wad few are more ardent 
lovers of theii' race and nation. He is too sagacious to bo a mere 
politician, and too sincere to be a demagogue. When the war broke, 
out, he espoused the Union cause, and canvjissed Kentucky in its 
defence. It will be doing no injustice to any of the Union leaders 
ot that State to say, that to him, more thtm auy otlicr man, is duo 
the credit of keeping his State fast to her moorings under the old 
flag. The people of the North scarcely comprehend the condition 
of artairs at that time in the border States. There it wjis civil lOtir. 
Cb'G 



C A F: I' K N T E K . 



Father was arrayed against son, and brotlier a^^ainst brother. The 
whole State was a boiling political cauldron, and violence and blood- 
shed were the u^ual events of each day. Under th^se circumstance.^. 
Mr. Carpenter took the stump in the memorable campaign of 1 S62, 
and faced dangers greater than are found upon the battlefield, with 
the firmness and courage demanded by the emergency, and worthy 
of the great cause. That campaign developed the full man ; he rose 
to the height of the " great argument.'' Tlie Union was dear to 
him, not only because it ha^l been formed by the great and good 
men of the past, cemented by their blood, and hallowed by their 
deaths, but for the better reason, that its perpetuity was essential to 
the full development of the power, resources, liberties and ha2.>pi- 
ness of his countrymen. HLs vision was not obscured by fknaticism, 
nor his judgment clouded by hatred of the Southern people. In his 
opinion, the destruction of the Confederate armies and government 
was the one necessity of the time. Not having received a military 
education, he did not think himself competent to command men on 
the battleiield, but he enlisted as a private soldier in the 41st Ky. 
Volunteers. He wa.s in the army but a few montLs, when he was 
again elected Attorney for the commonwealth, and continued to dis- 
charge the duties of that office until I860, when he again resigned, 
and removed to Charleston, S.C. In June, 18C7, he was appointed by 
Cliief-Jastice Chase- Eegister in Bankruptcy for the First Congres- 
sional District of that State, and held the yx'-'sition until the 9th day 
of December, 1868, when he was elected by the Legislature, Judge 
of the First Circuit, and at once entered upon the duties of that 
office. Few positions in life could be more critical. He was unac- 
quainted with the practice in South Carolina. During the interreg- 
num between her secession from, and return to the Union, a Con- 
federate, a Provisional Legislature, called into being by President 
Johnson, and the military Commander.?, had made laws for the gov- 
ernment of the people. The Acts of Congre&s, known as the Ee- 
construction Acts, had abrogated some of them, and some of the 
provisions of the New Constitution of the State, ordained in April, 
6G7 



18(58, were i-opngnnnt to otlit>i-s. It was tliereforo ver^' diffleiilt to 
doteriiiine wlioro tlio old laws ended, or tlie new commenced. Whcti 
tlie additional fact, tliat tlie C'liurloston bur, iv very able and con- 
scientious body of men, were wholly opposed, from aTitecedents and 
iducjition, to the then existing state of thinjis, and from their preju- 
dices to the judge, because he was of Northern birth and Union 
politics, ft more dithcult role could scarcely bo imagined. That 
Judge Carpenter, in the short period of twenty months, mastered the 
practice, reduced this chaos to order, disi)iised of more than three 
thousand cases at law and in equity, administered justice to the en- 
tire satisfaction of all ca-tes and classes, and had won the entire re- 
spect of the bar, without an exception, is a more eloquent eulogium 
upon his industry, talents and integrity, than can be written. Upon 
his retirement from the bench, at the largest meeting of the bar ever 
held in Charleston, Ex-Chief-Justice Dunkin presided, and the fol- 
lowing preamble and resolutions were otferod by Hon. W. G. De- 
saussure, and unanimously adopted : 

Whereas, The Bar of Charleston have learned that the Hon. E. B. 
Carpenter is about to resign his position as Judge of this Circuit, 
the duties of which office he has discharged with distinguished 
ability and fidelity ; and, ^ohereas, they deem it but a just tribvite 
to place upon record their estimate of the impartiality, courtesy 
and signal talents wluch have characterized his judicial coui-se on 
the bench ; therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the Bar of Charlestou, assembled, do tender to tlie 
Hon. R. B. Carpenter their profound recognition of the high char- 
acter, judicial integrity and ability with which he has presided iu 
the courts of justice. 

Resolved, That we will preserve a lively remembrance of the 
manner in which he has ever held the scales of justice with even 
hand, and vindicated the dignity and purity of the law. 

Resolved, That the ju-esiding orticer of this meeting be requested 
to convey the above resolutions to the Hon. R. B. Carpenter, and 
that they be spread upon the minutes of the Court. 
()0S 



EI(;irAIiI) H. (J A ICl'KNT EK. & 

The Convention tliat met in Columbia on tlic lotli of Jiini;, 1870, 
reiiresenting the intelligence, property and respectability of tlie 
State, unanimounly nominated Judge Carpenter as tlioir candidate 
for GovciTior. The nomination was not only urmought by him, but 
wa« against his well-known wishes. But in view of the incapacity, 
extravagance and corruption of the government of that State, and 
the opivression of itri people, he did not hesitate to resign his office, 
accept the candidacy and canvass tlic State. He was defeated, not 
by votes at tlie polls, but by the most infamous and general stuffing 
of the boxes days after the election had closed, as a judicial investi- 
gation has since proved. During tliat w>ntest, he was unsfiaring 
in \m denunciations of the fraud, bribery and corruption of the State 
officials, and won the respect and confidence and kind regards of 
the people. It was a new era in South Carolina politics ; and liis 
talents, fairness and candor made f.^r him hosts of friends among the 
good and intelligent, and, of course, many enemies among the 
ignorant and vicious. Perhaps Judge Carjjenter is more remark- 
able for his conversational than his oratorical powers. Whenever 
he talks, crowds gatlier round, and are never weary with listening. 
He is an original thinker, full of information, jiresents new ideas 
forcibly and old ones in a new light — takes up your thought and 
carries it forward into new fields ungleaned and untrodden. He is 
the delight of the social circle — easy and natural in manner, consid- 
erate of the feelings and tolerant of the opinions of others. We 
conclude this sketch by an extract from a graceful writer in a work 
published in 18.59 :* 

"In person, he is tidl, with a good figure, a fine voice, and eyes 
that are absolutely sleepy (it would be more poetical Uj say dreamy, 
but sleepy is the word). There is nothing in his face or appearance 
to indicate the man, unless it be some lines plowed, not by years, 
but thought, and an habitual shade of sa<^lnes8 that rests always upon 
his face when in repose. When addressing a popular audience, in 
moments of enthusiasm, his eyes brighten to a bkze, and hia feat- 
• WaygidB dVimimisB. 

6C9 



a KIOn.VIMi li <• A U I' K \T EU. 

ures do tbp bidding of ids mind with wonderful facility. Sarcasm, 
scorn, contempt, arc ndrrorcd with faithful accuracy, while, in hisi 
loftier bui"sts of eloquence, ho seems the emboilimont of the devoted, 
imselfish patriot. His thoughts are clear, his diction smooth and 
flowing, or tei-se and antithetical, as suits his purpose and the occa- 
sion. Ho does not attempt to win a forensic battle bv strategic 
movements, but mai-shals his thoughts in solid phalanx, and drops 
upon the enemy and takes the position at the point of the bayonet. 
He uttei-s the boldest and most unpopular propositions in a manner 
and with a voice which seem to say, Sir, listtn to nie, and yon shall 
be convinced He has a fertile imagination, a soaring fancy, and 
deep pathos, and yet keeps them all in such subjection to bis judg- 
ment, that he is eminently a practical speaker. It is true there are 
tlowei-s on either hand, but there is also a well-defined path along 
which the orator has pa.*scd.'' 





(zy. ^^^<i^ /7^^> 



SERRANUS CLINTOI^ HASTINGS.* 



J^jf-'CCESS is not always an evidence of genius, no more tlian 
j^» failure is an assurance of incapacity, yet he who triumphs 
in life's battle despite many and serious obstacles in his 
early years — he who, in due time, 'attains honored yjrominence 
among his fellow-men without such accessories as wealth and in- 
fluence to render the struggle less arduous — in a word, he who, by 
dint of his own brain and muscle, rises from poverty and obscurity 
to aflSiuence and position, surely develops rare ability, and illus- 
trates a life-story worthy of emulation. Such a man is the subject 
of this sketch, and his career is another and convincing example of 
that success which follows merit, and to which all may aspire who, 
like him, possess the will, the force of character, and the perse- 
verance essential to its accomplishment. 

The ancestry of Mr. Hastings can be traced to times quite remote, 
and he is supposed tfj be a descendant of the general of his name, 
who, during the Heptarchy, led the Danish forces into England. 
His grandfather emigrated from England to Rhode Island early in 
the seventeenth century, and afterward settled in New York. Kob- 
ert Collins Hastings, his father, was a well-educated and intelligent 
mechanic, a native of New York, and married Patience Brayton, 
of the large family of that name, who were amongst the first set- 
tlers of the counties of Jefferson and St. Lawrence. 

He was conspicuous in the stirring political events of his day, 
and was a warm friend and supporter of De Witt Clinton, after 
whom he named his son. 

• This sketch, originally written by Thomas P. Marden for "RtpreReniative Men of 
the Pacific," has beei 'e-written, revised, and enlarged for tliis work. 

671 



2 SERRANUS CLINTON UASTINGS. 

He TTas in eoinmaiid of a conipaiij' at Sackett's Harbor at the 
close of the war of 1812, and, in a personal encounter, provoked 
by the colonel of his regiment, lie dealt that ofhcer a sword-thrust, 
on account of which, though never pi'osecuted cnmmaliter, he was 
harassed and persecuted by the colonel and his numerous and pow- 
erful friemis, until he became reduced from comfortable affluence to 
poverty. In this condition he removed to near Geneva, where he 
died, at the age of thirty-four years, destitute and despondent, leaving 
a wife and iive children, of whom the subject of this notice was the 
eldest. Before speaking of the son, we will mention another inci- 
dent in the eventful career of the father. Robert C. Hastings, 
during the war of 1812, together with two others of Watertown, 

became surety for Paymaster , who, some time after, represented 

that he'had been. robbed of $80,000 in government funds. This 
statemjsnt not being credited, the three sureties repaired one Sunday 
morning to the residence of the suspected paymaster and invited him 
to a walk in the fields, and there thrust him three times in a water- 
pit, declaring each should be the last unless he would reveal the truth. 
The third time convinced the culprit of the terrible earnestness of 
the parties with whom he had to deal, and after being restored to 
consciousness, not without considerable difficulty, he finally ac- 
knowledged that the money was concealed on his wife's person. 
Acting on this confession, they immediately returned to the house, 
and forcibly took possession of the secreted funds, whereupon the 
enraged wife and proud woman, belonging to one of the first families 
of the country, unwilling to survive the disgrace of herself and hus- 
band, ran to the center of Black River Bridge near at hand, leaped 
into the stream and was drowned. 

Serranus Clinton Hastings was born November 22, 1814, in Jef- 
ferson County, New York. In early youtli he passed six years in 
study at Gouverneur Academy, and, from this time to manhood, no 
one but himself can appreciate the difficulties, arising from poverty, 
he had to contend with in meeting the necessities of life, and at 
the same time prosecuting his education. At the age of twenty he 
G72 



SRRRANUS CLINTON HASTINGS. 3 

beea.ne principal of the XnrwiH. Academy in Chcnnngo County 
JSew York, where he introduced the Hamiltonian system of instruc- 
tion in the languages, tiie analytical system of mathematics and 
improvements in other branches of education. After one year's 
successful teaching, he resigned this position, and commence.] the 
study of law with Charles Thorpe, Esq., of Norwicli. Here he con- 
tinued his studies but a few months, and, in 1834, emigrated to 
Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where he completed his legal course in the 
office of Daniel S. Majors, Esq. He did not, however, enter at 
once upon his professional labors, and in 1836, during the bitter 
Presidential contest, we find him editing, in the interest of the 
Democratic party, t\^^ Indiana Signal, ^^ influential journal, which 
gave spirited and effective support to Martin Van Buren His 
editorial career of six months closed with the triumph of his candi- 
date; and he then parted with his second brother, who migrated to 
Texas, enhsted in a company of which he afterwards" became 
captam, fought four years on the Texan frontier and Mexican border 
and was killed with nearly all of his command-victims of the' 
treachery of his Mexican allies. 

Mr. Hastings resumed his journey westward in December, 1836 
and, on reaching Terre Haute, Indiana, presented himself to Jud^e' 
Porter of the Circuit Court, and ably sustained the test of a sevet-e 
legal examination at the hands of that distinguished jurist His 
next move was still further west until he reached the Black Hawk 
purchase (now the State of Iowa), and arrived atBuriington, in Jan- 
nary, 1837. The following spring he took up his abode on the 
western bank of the Mississippi, where has since sprung up the city 
of Muscatine, Iowa, and here resolved to commence the practice of 
the profession for which he had prepared himself, having first been 
examined by Judge Irwin and admitted to the bar. At that time 
this vast stretch of country was attached to the Territory of Wis- 
consin for judicial purposes. Shortly after his admittance to the- 
nar, Mr. Hastings was commissioned a Justice of the Peace bv 
Governor Dodge, of Wisconsin, with jurisdiction extending overthe 
673 



4 S !• n R A N U S CLINTON H A S T 1 N r. g . 

eomitrv between Burliiigtuii ami Davenport, a dislaiico of ninety 
miles. The western limit of this jnristliction being nncotilined, the 
ambitions young magistrate, for his own satisfaction, lixeil it at the 
Pacific Ocean — not having the fear of Mexico before his eyes. The 
fii-st and only ease during his term of office was a criminal charge 
against a man found guilty, by the Justice, of stealing thirty dollars 
from a citizen and three dollars from the court. The sentence, char- 
acteristic of the early and summary jurisprudence of the West, was 
that the prisoner be taken to an adjacent grove and tied to an oak 
tree, and receive upon his back thirty lashes for the money stolen 
from the citizen and three lashes for the three dollars taken from 
the Court, and to be thence conveyed over the river to the Illinois 
shore, and banished from the Territory forever. This sentence was 
duly, formally, and thoroughly executed in presence of the court 
and all the people. 

On June 12, 1838, Iowa was created a separate Territory, and 
Judge Hastings soon after became the Democratic candidate of his 
district, for the first Legislature to assemble under the Territorial 
government. To this position he was elected after a very spirited 
contest; and from time to time thereafter, and until 1846, when 
Iowa was admitted into the Union, he continued in public life, rep- 
resenting his constituents either in the IIousq or Council. During 
one of these sessions of the Territorial Legislature, he was elected 
President of the Council and discharged the dutiesof the office with 
marked ability and dis}>aich. At another session, while a member 
of the Judiciary Committee, and associated with Hon. James W. 
Grimes, since United States Senator, he reported from the com- 
mittee the celebrated statute known in Oregon and Iowa for many 
years as the Blue Book, and this severe and comprehensive task 
was accomplished in ninety days, the limit of a legislative session. 

About this time occurred what is known in the liistory of Iowa 

as the ^'jilissoun War" originating in the attempt of the sheriff of 

Clark County, Missouri, and other Missouri officials, to collect taxes 

within the territorial limits of Iowa. Governor Boggs, of Missouri, 

674 



SEIIRANUS CLINTON HASTINGS. 6 

and Governor Lucas, of Iowa, were tlie acknowledged and oppobing 
leaders of" this " war "; and bo great was the excitement at that time, 
and 60 bitter the feeling engendered, that bloodshed seemed in- 
evitable. Judge Ilastings took an active part in tlie conflict ; he 
left his seat in the Legislature, repaired to Muscatine, and assiimed 
command of the " Muscatine Dragoons," and three companies 
of militia. Without tents or sufficient clothing, with no arms 
save pistols and bowie-knives, no forage for his animals, and but 
a scanty supply of food for his men, he led his force, in the 
middle of a severe and bleak winter, to the northern boundary 
of Missouri. The result of this campaign was the bloodless 
but glorious capture of the obnoxious sheriff, who was taken in 
triumph back to the outraged soil of Iowa and lodged in the Mus- 
catine county jail. Before Major Hastings could again cross the 
Missouri line, where the Missouri forces were arming and preparing 
to meet him, the difficulties were adjusted and peacefully restored. 
Shortly after the termination of this serio-comic campaign Major 
Hastings was appointed on the governor's staff, with the rank of 
major of militia. 

Early in 1846 a convention of the people of Iowa assembled at 
the capitol and accepted the boundaries proposed by Congress for 
the new State. Major Hastings was unanimously nominated for 
Congress, and elected subsequently by the people. Iowa being ad- 
mitted into the Union, December 28, 184:0, he took his seat as her 
representative in the twenty-ninth Congress. "With one exception he 
was the youngest member of the House — a body then noted for the 
virtues and abilities of its Ecpresentatives. John Quincy Adams 
had not then been removed from the theater of his great triumphs, 
and Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Andrew Johnson and 
other bright names shone on the roll of members. 

In January, 1848, Major Hnstings was appointed Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court of Iowa, which position ho held a little over 
a year, and then resigned for the purpose of emigrating to Cali- 
fornia. He arrived in that State in the spring of 1849 and settled 
675 



6 SKKUANUS CLINTON HASTINGS. 

at Bonic-iii. Ho wivs sik>u thoreuftor uiiiiniinously clootod, by the 
Logislutiiro, Oliiol" Justico of tlio Snpromo Court, uiul served out 
liis term of two years with clmraeteristio nbility and to the satis- 
fivetiou of nil. In lS.")i Judjjo Hustings received the Democratic 
nomination for Attorney-General of California, to whieh position 
ho was oleeted, receiving the highest vote cast at the election, 
cxee)it that given on tho same ticket to the candidate for State 
treasurer. This vote was considered highly complimentary, as the 
field was oeeuplod solely by his eloquent Whig opponent who 
thoroughly cap.vassed the State. At tho end of his two ^'eara' 
term of otlieo ho retired from public life, and has not sineo been 
before the people as a candidate, although he has been prominently 
interested in and identified with the growtii and prosperity of his 
adopted State. Judge Hastings wsis tho guest of William H. 
Seward in his tour ot' observation through Oregon. Wsishington, 
and Alaska, in the summer of ISOJ), and private duties interfered 
to prevent him accompanying the distinguished statesman in his 
journey through our sister Republics. 

On the return of Governor Seward, in the summer of the past 
year (^1870), (Vi n^uh- tor Japan and China, ho was the guest of 
Judge Hastings for about ten days, at liis residence in San Fran- 
cisco. The entertainment was highly pleasing to tho governor and 
his party, and he often speaks of tho hospitality of his friend as 
being unsurjntsmf. Judge Hastings claims that the people of 
California espetMally owe a debt of gratitude to William H. Seward, 
and cannot do him too much honor — to say nothing of tho respect 
due to one recognized as a great statesmau and philosopher by all 
civilized nations. 

The Judge is a married man, and h.as seven elnldren living; 
three sons and four daugiiters. He is ot' an active, nervous tem- 
perament, genial manners, and agreeable presence ; is tall in stature, 
of pmverful build, and evidently possesses great piiysical endurance. 
Although a ready and racy debater, ho lays no claim to oratory ; 
nor is he particularly adapted to the legal profession — his nature 
G7l) 



SEKRANUS C1>INT0N HASTINGS 7 

rebelling agaitut the restraints of judicial oHice, nutwitlista.idiiig 
his legal attainments arecuiisiderablo, and his conduct and decisions, 
as the highest judicial functionary of two States, have been generally 
commended, and seldom, if ever, condemned. Ho is a good Latin 
scholar; is blessed with large and liberal views, extended informa- 
tion, and fine conversational powers, infused at times with wit and 
humor. Politics and finances generally engross his thoughts; still 
ho is addicted to travel, and since he left publico office, the greater 
part of his time which could be spared from the proper superinten- 
dence of his children's education, and the management of his 
estates, has been spent in extended travels in this^ country and 
Europe. He frequently of late years visits the scenes of his early 
life in Iowa, and is always received by the old settlers of that 
country with denionstrati(jns of pleasure characteristic of the West 
ern pioneer. 

While wearing the honors and cares of office, whirling in the 
dizzy round of political agitation, ho always husbanded his resources, 
and managed his private business with consummate wisdom. Dur- 
ing the exciting, prosperous times when the State of California was 
in its infancy, he wisely foresaw and embraced the opportunity of 
laying a broad and solid foundation for future wealth. Indeed, his 
whole career, whether viewed from a political or financial stand- 
point, has been one of vinbroken success. 

As one of the pioneers of the marvelous development of the 
far West, he is to-day witnessing the fruits of his early labors, and 
those of his co-workers in the great field of modern progress. 
Scarcely beyond the prime of life, he can now look back upon a 
past well employed, a noble work accomplished, and enjoy that 
satisfaction which emanates from a consciousness of success the 
more abundant that, in advancing individual prosperity, it has also 
enhanced public good. The heart of such a man cannot grow old, 
nor will his memory die. 

677 



NEHEMIAH PEERT. 



y'l^,'' ACII individual life Las a InVtorj of its own. For al- 
^^'/T^ tliougli there may be jjoiiits of strong general or particular 
resemblance between the cliaracters of different men and 
the incidents of different lives, resulting in a degree of sameness 
which is far from engaging, still the points of dissimilarity are far 
more numerous than those of likeness ; and individuality iu this 
respect is as clearly defined as it. is in faces. But in the biography 
of an individual, as in the history of a nation, there is little which 
is attractive to the mass, unless it abounds in sensational events — 
unless strong passions are displayed, great crimes portrayed, stirring 
deeds recited, violent alternations of fortune chronicled, or the 
story told of almost insuperable obstacles surmounted by guile or 
force. Virtue is not dramatic, while vice is ever intensely so. 

Such reflections come naturally to one who undertakes to prepare 
the biography of another whose life has been disturbed by no 
violent fluctuations either of passion or fortune, who has made no 
flagrant deviations from the path of rectitude, and who has found 
his supremest happiness in honorably performing his duties as a 
citizen, and iu steadily adhering to the practice of religion and 
virtue. It is believed, nevertheless, that the record of a life thus 
spent, though it may not minister to excitement, may yet exert a 
quiet but wholesome influence u|)on others : inspiring them by its 
example and reassuring them by its success. 

Nehemiah PeiTy was born at Ridgefield, Fairfield County, Con- 
necticut, on the 30th of March, 1816. He is of Welsh descent, his 
ancestors having migrated from the old town of Chester, in Wales, 
10 Fail-field, Connecticut, some time piibr to the War of Inde 
679 



2 N R H E M I A n P E R R Y . 

pendence. Ilis graiulfathor. Dr. David Perry, was n gentleman 
of culture and many excellencies of character ; and it is gratefully 
remembered of him by the more aged people of Kidgefield, that 
when tiie I'rotestant Episcopal Church was in its infiincy in New 
England, and the parish in that town was without a pastpr, Dr. 
Perry qualified himself and was ordained a minister, officiating 
as rector for several years, at the same time continuing the practice 
of his original profession of medicine. During tbis time be was 
actively instrumental in the construction of St. Stephen's Church 
at that place. David Perry, the eldest son of this good and able 
man, partook of many of his father's fine traits of character and 
mind, and settled in Pidgefield about 1780, where his memory is 
still cherished by all who are admirei-s of rectitude in the citizen 
and consistency in the Christian. Here, as we have seen, his son 
Nehemiah was born, and here the lad received a good English 
education at the excellent West Lane Seminary, the same school 
at which the well-known " Peter Parley" received his early educa- 
tion. 

It was the intention of Mr. David Perry that Nehemiah should 
study medicine, the profession in which his grandfather and two 
of his uncles had attained eminence ; and at the age of sixteen he 
had began the preparatory course for it, when apprehensions for his 
health led his father to take him away from studies, perhaps too 
earnestly prosecuted. The life of a farmer was thought to be 
more favorable to his constitution, and to that the solicitude of his 
parents consigned him. But this occupation was as little con- 
sonant with the tastes of Nehemiah, as the etndy of medicine had 
been favorable to his health. After a year of restlessness and 
aspiration, at the age of seventeen he embarked on the voyage of 
life for himself by engaging as a clerk in the drygoods store oi 
George St. John, at Norwalk, Connecticut, at which place he gained 
his fii-st knowledge of those mercantile pursuits that later in life 
he was to prosecute so successfully. And here, let it be stated for 
the encouragement of other youths who are just entering upon life, 
680 



NEHEMIAH PERRT. 3 

and who are too apt to despise " small beginnings," that during 
this his first clerkship, young Perry received the meager salary of 
twenty-five dollars a year and his board. 

Constantly impelled by honorable aspirations, Nehcmiah did not 
remain a great while in this lowly position in a country village ; 
but a year afterward, in 1834, pushed out still farther from home, 
to the city of New York, where he speedily found employment as 
a salesman in the clothing store of Charles Hall, at 80 Vesey Street. 
Here he remained, at a fair salary for those times, foj. about eigh- 
teen months ; and here, perhaps, he would have remained for an 
indefinite time, but for one of those apparently accidental circum- 
stances which so often change the course of a man's life and color 
its destiny. The " Fourth of July," 1835, then as now was ob- 
served — as we hope it may continue to be for all time — as a national 
holiday ; and Nehemiah determined to " keep the Fourth " by an 
excursion to Newark, New Jersey, on the horse cars of the New 
Jersey Railroad, then just constructed but not yet having arrived 
at the dignity of steam as a motive power. Arrived at Newark 
without knowing a person there, Nehemiah had ample time to look 
about him, and suft'ered no interruption from companionship with 
others. Looking about with a mind tliat was wide awake to note 
and prompt to decide, he was impressed with the business oppor- 
tunity presented by this town, then just entering upon a career of 
almost unexampled growth and prosperity ; and he determined to 
start in business there on his own account. By his prompt decision 
at this critical moment Mr. Perry illustrated a phase of his charac- 
ter, which has ever adhered to him, namely, the intuitive ability 
to read men and canvass plans instantly, and the habit of acting 
upon his convictions thus formed without any delay. The writer 
of this sketch lias often heard him declare : " If I ever know any 
thing, it is as soon as presented." 

Accordingly, in his twentieth year, on the sixth of February, 
1836, Mr. Perry opened a clothing store at No. 1 Commerce Street, 
Newark. That city had then a population of about seventeen thou- 
681 



4- NEHEMIAII PERRY. 

b.uid ; iuid although our youtliful mcicliaut received a full share of 
local encouragement, his enterprising spirit and broadening mercan- 
tile views demanded a field of wider scope. It was not long, there- 
fore, before he established himself, with native foresight, in the 
heart of what has since become a populous city, on the corner of 
Broad and Market streets, where, witli the constantly accumulat- 
ing means which were the reward of his industry and sagacity, he 
laid the foundations of an extended manutacturing business, with 
successful branches, all drawing their principal supplies from this 
center, planted at Petersburg, Va. ; Wilmington, N. C. ; Louisville 
and Lexington, Ky. ; St. Louis, Mo. ; Nashville, Knoxville, and 
Memphis, Tenu. ; Cincinnati, Ohio, and several otlier points. Mr. 
Perry continued in mercantile life until 1865, wlien he retired with 
an elegant competency as the fruit of his devotion to business, and 
as the result of wise investments in real estate in Newark. The 
value of these last has since increased with the rapid gro«vth of the 
city, adding largely to his already handsome fortune. During his 
mercantile career, which, as we have seen, extended over a period 
of thirty years,' and which witnessed several of those violent peri- 
odical revulsions so disastrous to general prosperity and destructive 
to individual credit, Mr. Perry was always able to preserve an 
enviable reputation for probity and financial skill. Throughout 
the fluctuations and vicissitudes of all those eventful years, his 
credit was maintained, not only unimpaired, but unimpeached ; and 
with honorable pride he may call to mind the fact that never in his 
life was a dollar of his paper dishonored. 

Although Mr. Perry gave himself with rare devotion to business, 
he was never indifterent to politics. On the contrary, from an 
early period he took an ardent interest in the political questions 
that arose; and by his intelligence and sagacity was soon enabled 
to exert an important influence — quickly taking rank as a natural 
leader. He was originally an old-line Whig, and was thoroughly 
imbued with the conservative and national characteiistics of that 
patriotic party. As a Whig he was twice elected — first in 1851, 
6S2 



NEHEMIAH PERRY. 5 

and again in 1852 — to the Common Council of Newark, of which 
body he was the President for one term. While serving in this 
capacity, he originated and perfected many important measures of 
public improvement, which met with strong opposition at the time, 
but whose advantageous results to the people and city of Newark 
have vindicated his firmness and foresight. The value of his ser- 
vices in the Common Council were fully appreciated by the public ; 
and in 1854 he was elected as the "Whig representative from his 
district to the Legislature of the State in the House of Assembly, 
and again in 1855 : at the former session serving in the important 
position of Chairman of the Committee of "Ways and Means, and 
in the latter receiving the caucus nomination of his party associates 
for Speaker of the House. As a member of the State Legislature 
Mr. Perry was distinguished for his fidelity to the interests of his 
constituents ; for his loyalty to the cause of morals and education ; 
for unimpeachable probity ; and for his watchfulness for the dignity 
and welfare of the State. Upon the demise of the Whig party in 
1856, Mr. Perry identified himself, with characteristic zeal, with 
the Democratic party — his services and influence as a member of 
which were rated so highly that he was appointed, by the State 
Convention of the party. Chairman of the State Executive Com- 
mittee. In 1860 he was selected by the Democrats of the fifth 
Congressional district of New Jersey, to stand for Congress, in op- 
position to ex-Governor William S. Pennington, who had served one 
term and was Speaker of the House of Representatives. Governor 
Pennington was a gentleman of ability and large influence; at his 
election, two years earlier, he had a majority of nearly 2,000 over 
his opponent, and his popularity was so great that he was supposed 
to be invincible. His friends made extraordinary exertions to re- 
elect him ; but Mr. Perry's energy, prudence, mastery of detail, 
omnipresence, and political sagacity were triumjjhant. It was 
during this, his first Congressional term, that the war of the rebel- 
lion broke out ; and while standing steadfastly by his Democratic 
principles, and criticising or condemning the administration of Mr. 
683 



6 NEnEMIAH PERRT. 

Lincoln tor what lie consiJored its violation of personal right and 
coustitntional law, and for its tendency to a centralized despotism, 
Mr. Pcrrj' took advanced grounds in favor of the war — snjtporting 
every nit-asuro calling for men or money, and giving liberally of his 
own time and means. Notwithstanding their decided antagonism 
on particular issues, Mr. Lincoln is known to liave expressed hint- 
self in strong terms of approval of Mr. Perry's patriotism and active 
humanitj'. In especial, he and other honorable opponents were 
warm in praise of the public spirit shown by Mr. Perry when, 
vessels being scarce and the authority to charter them lacking, ho 
procured a vessel upon the advance of his own means, and accom- 
panied it to minister to and rescue the sick and wounded soldiers 
of New Jersey regiments, who were lying on the field without suf- 
ficient appliances for their care and comfort. 

In 1862 Mr. Perry was again put forward by the Democratic 
party — which he had so honorably represented — as its candidate 
for another Congressional term. His opponent at this canvass was 
Joseph P. Bradley, Esq., then a distinguished member of the 
Newark bar, and more recently appointed, by President Grant, one 
of the Judges of the United States Supreme Court. Judge Bradley 
was a poweiful adversary — both by reason of his great ability and 
bis deserved popularity. The canvass was an exceedingly earnest 
one. Judge Bradley put forth all his rare powei*s of argument and 
persuasion ; and he was met with equal ability and superior dex- 
terity by Mr. Perry, who was again triumphant — this time by an 
increased majority, it being nearly 3,000. This result will appear 
all the more surprising, as well as more creditable to Mr. Perry, 
when it is borne in mind that, in this campaign Judge Bradley 
was supported by nearly the entire body of the legal profession in 
the district, while Mi*. Perry fought his own battle almost single- 
handed. 

During his two Congressional terms, Mr. Perry unswervingly 
pui-sued the same consistent, conservative, democratic, and patriotic 
course. Seeing nothing but his country while its union was imper- 
6S4 



NKHEMIAir PKriRT. 7 

iled, he for£;ot party whenever great principles were not infringed 
upon ; but wlienever these were invaded he sternly and steadily 
resisted the threatened violatii^n. His various speeches are indica- 
tive of great intelligence, rnanly independence, and statesmanlike 
precision. Wc believe it may be truly said of his record as a 
national legii^lator, that his every act will bear the most hostile 
scrutiny, and merits unqualified praise. Even in such particulars 
of duty as his selection of cadets for the Military and Nas-al acade- 
mies, he exercised the most scnipulons care ; and both the young 
gentlemen — Lieutenant George W. Deshler, of the army, and 
William Jaques, of the navy — whom he nominated, graduated with 
honors, and are accomplished and rising officers. 

Upon retiring from Congress, Mr. PeiTv spent a considerable 
time, in 1858 and again in 1865, in an extended tour of Europe, 
with his family; and while his visits added much to the stores of 
his observant mind, they also served still more to confirm him in 
his admiration of the institutions of his native land. 

Throughout his active life of varied mercantile and political 
vicissitude, Mr. Perry found time and inclination to serve God. 
This he ever felt to be his first great duty — paramount to every 
other. And herein lies the one great secret of his ei^uanimity 
and contentment under all tbe excitements to which he was sub- 
jected. As early as 1838, when, a young man of twenty-two, he 
had just assumed the burden and care of business, he united with 
the Central Presbyterian Church of Newark, then under the pas- 
torate of the accomplished Kev. Charles Hoover. It was a ser- 
mon of this eloquent divine, from the text, "Pray ye thit jour 
flight be not in the winter," which first awakened his mind to tile 
truths of religion ; and from that time until the present he has been 
a consistent, unostentatious, cheerful Christian. He was mainly 
instrumental in building the edifice of the above-named church, 
and, with habitual liberality, at one time made his credit responsible 
for its construction, to the full extent of all that he was then worth. 
Nor did he restrict his liberality to this enterprise alone, but he has 
GS5 



g NEHEMIAH PERRY 

nnitbrnily extended it in aid of numerous other struggling cliurclics 
of all denominations, and in furtherance of various institutions of 
learning and charity, in the city of Newark and in the State at 
large. Mr. Perry is now an active member of the South Park 
Church, Newai'k, and has been a largo contributor to its prosperity 
by his assistance financially and otherwise. 

The citizens of Newark and of the State of New Jersey have 
evinced their estimate of Mr. Perry's ability as a financier, and 
liis integrity as a man, by selecting him to represent a number of 
important and delicate trusts. He is a director of the United Eail- 
roads of New Jersey, of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Com- 
pany, of the City Bank of Newark, and of the American Fire 
Insurance Company of Newark, and of several other strong institu- 
tions, which enjoy public credit in a rare degree. And although 
he has retired, nominally, from active business life, he is still ardu- 
ously engaged in positions of influence, to which he has been 
assigned by the favor and confidence of his fellow-citizens. 

Mr. Perry has been once married. In 1838 — for this and other 
reasons perhaps the most eventful one of his life — he was married 
to Emeline N. Gould, of Caldwell, New Jersey, who is still living, 
and who has shared with him the cloud and the sunshine of his life 
— alleviating many of his burdens when they were at the lieaviest, 
counseling with him in liis anxieties and perplexities, and softening 
the trials to which his checkered life has exposed him. Their fam- 
ily' consists of two sons and two daughters ; and the eldest son, who 
perpetuates his father's name, is at this time the Corporation Coun- 
sel of his native city of Newark, where he has already established 
a high reputation as an accomplished and upright lawyer. 

Mr. Perry is rather below the average height, is M-ell and com- 
pactly built, has an elastic and vigorous frame, and is the possessor 
of robust health. His countenance is indicative of quickness of 
perception, selt-comuiand, tenacity of purpose, and of a genial and 
contented temperament. A steadfast friend, who never wavers 
with change of fortune, he has great faith in other men. An hor.- 



NEHEMIAII PEEBY. 9 

est man by impulse and practice, he is unRiispicions of craft or 
dishonesty in others. A liberal giver, he is without ostentation or 
parade. A self-made man, he is free from pride, and has a ready 
hand for all who need and wlio deserve help. He is a fair example 
of wliat can be produced by our democratic institutions when 
beautified by the spirit of Christianity. 
687 




Aji^Lil^ 



^.'/J^££^ ^., 



77^ 



HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. 

BY GEOEGE P. ANDREWS, 

Asuisiant Attorney oft)i£ (Tnile<l. States during the official terras of District AUomeys Tlieodure 
. Sedgtoick, James I. Roosevelt, E. Ddnjieid Smith, and Daniel S. Dickinson. 

was the glory of the United States, that as early as 
the year 1820, their national Congress declared the Slave 
'^ Trade piracy, and threatened its infamous participants 
with the penalty of death. It was the shame of the Re- 
public that from that time till 1861, a period of forty-one years, 
a law which the publicists of the world had eulogized, remained a 
dead letter. Ships had been seized and mariners arrested ; naval 
officers had been active and marshals demonstrative; but no 
prosecuting office'r had followed the one to condemnation and sale, 
nor the other to conviction and execution. It was reserved to 
E. Delafield Smith, District Attorney of the United States at 
New York during the administration of Abraham Lincoln, a 
young and untitled lawyer, to bring to the scaffold, after the 
iniquity of a third voyage, the captain of a slave ship. 

Humanity had long demanded a terrible example to deter cupidity 
from this cruel crime. The difficulties of proof and the perversities of 
juries had become proverbial, and public sentiment did not then coin- 
cide with the severity of the declared penalty. The law had been pro- 
nounced by men of legal eminence too defective in detail to admit 
of enforcement. This very culprit had, in 1860, been offered immu- 
nity from the punishment of death if he would plead guilty and 
accept a commutation of sentence to mere imprisonment. To 
bring him to justice, required ability, energy, persistency, a power 
of persuasion, rare courage, and perfect integrity. The result, in 
the execution of Nathaniel Gordon, master of the slave ship 



2 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. 

" Erie," is at once a momiment to the public services, and a key 
to the character, of the subject of this sketch. Its consequences 
to the country, at a time when foreign nations were seeking to 
intervene against us in our late struggle for national existence 
upon the ground that in our lust for dominion we were indifferent 
to the question of slavery, were at the time acknowledged by the 
press of Europe. In an oration delivered in the city of New York, 
February 22d, 1862, the historian George Bancroft referred to 
this celebrated case in the following language : — " The centuries 
clasp hands and repeat it one to another ! Yesterday the sentiment 
of Jefferson, that the slave trade is a piratical warfare upon man- 
kind, was reaiSrmed by carrying into effect the sentence of a high 
tribunal of justice ; and to save the lives and protect the happiness 
of thousands, a slave trader was executed as a pirate and an enemy 
of the human race." 

From a genealogical pamphlet prepared by a relative of Mr. 
Smith, we learn that his father was Doctor Archelaus G. Smith, 
long an eminent physician and surgeon in Western New York, 
who with meagre advantages rose from a farmer's boy to a man of 
scientiiic acquirements, — assiduous, upright, and benevolent. In 
perfecting himself in his profession, he attended in the city of New 
York the medical lectures of Doctor Edward Delafield, and 
named his son after that distinguished man. 

E. Delafield Smith was born at Eochester, New York, May 
8th, 1826. The family removed to the city of New York when he 
was ten years of age. " He is a New York boy," used to say old 
Alderman James Kelly, formerly of the Fourth Ward, and more 
recently Postmaster of the city, " for I have seen him roll hoop on 
the Battery and play marbles in the City Hall Park." 

In the earliest years of the settlement of this country, the grand- 
father of Dr. Smith emigrated from England to Connecticut, being 
one of two brothers, the other of whom settled in Virginia. Both 
were planters. The names of his maternal ancestors were Preston 
and Bundy. The latter name was derived from the forest of 



HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. 3 

Boiidy, near Paris, the Buudys being among the adventurers who 
accompanied William the Conqueror to England, subsequently 
turning farmers and settling in Kent. The American progenitor 
came over with Governor Winthrop in 1630. The immediate 
ancestors of Doctor Smith fought in the American revolution, 
and he was himself a surgeon in the war of 1812. On the ma- 
ternal side, Mr. Smith is a descendant of the Boughtons, an 
English family, originially from Wales. His mother's maternal 
ancestor was a Penoyer, a family which left France for England 
in the time of Louis fourteenth, at the revocation of the edict of 
Nantes. To Kobert Penoyer, Harvard University owed one of its 
early endowments ; and a scholarship in that college still belongs 
to the descendants. Jared Boughton, Mr. Smith's maternal grand- 
father, a man of integrity, intelligence, and enterprise, emigrated 
from Old Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to the country of the 
Genesee, in Western New York. He was one of the pioneers of 
civilization in that region. His wife was the first white woman, 
and his eldest daughter — the mother of Delafield Smith, a woman 
of superior intelligence — the first wliite child ever in Victor, in the 
county of Ontario, where " Boughton Hill " was one of the oldest 
settlements. This was in 1790. Deer were then plenty, and 
bears and wolves were then often seen, in a wilderness which 
now wears no trace of savage life. A journey from Massachu- 
setts to Western New York was at that period accomplished in 
winter by sleighs, and in summer on horseback, men and women 
being borne over the streams upon the ice in January, and upon 
the saddle in July. 

During his childhood, Delafield was half the year upon the farm 
of his maternal grandfather, where he imbibed a love of rural 
scenes, of horses, and of stock which has never deserted him ; and 
for the remainder of the year a student in one of the severest of 
seminaries, located at Rochester, where he acquired a hatred of 
the exactions of a school which ever afterward confirmed his char- 
acteristic impatience of arbitrary restraints. But he was a good 
6')1 



4 HON. K OKI-AriKLP SMITH. 

reader, and his infiiut dec-laniation, in a church of that phice, at 
the age of eight, at a school exhibition, was long remembered. 

In New York, the old Quaker school of Solyman Bro\vTi, in 
Broadway, below Broome Street, the gi-ammar school of the 
University, Coiulert's French Academy at AVhcatsheaf, New 
Jersey, and a New England seminary at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 
were his haunts up to the commencement of his college course. 

Entering the New York University, under Theodore Freliug- 
hnysen, Tayler Lewis, Draper, Loomis, Johnson, Henry, and other 
eminent professoi-s, he was the poet of his class, and by the 
common testimonials of both teachei-s and students, its best writer 
and speaker. He has since returned to this institution as a pro- 
fessor in its faculty of law. 

Graduating at the age of twenty, he pursued his legal studies, 
tirst with an elder brother, and subsequently in the offices of E. M. 
& E. H. Blatchford, Judge William Kent, and Judge Henry E. 
Da\nes. In 1848, he was admitted to the bar, and in January 
1849, commenced alone the practice of his profession. In 1851 he 
formed a partnei-ship with Mr. Smith Clift ; and subsequently with 
Mr. Isaac P. Martin and Mr. Augustus F. Smith — the latter being 
his brother and a man of professional distinction. Perhaps no legal 
business in the city of New York has been more lucrative than that 
in which he participated for many yeai-s in the partnei-ship last 
mentioned. 

Four lai-ge volumes of selected judicial decisions were published 
by him from 1854 to 1859. These are widely known to the legal 
profession of the comitry, and are often cited, under the name of 
E. D. Smith's Eeports. 

Witli a solid reputation as a mercantile lawyer, pecuniarily in- 
dependent, and deeply interested in public afl^iirs, he accepted, in 
April, 1861, the position of law officer of the United States in 
Xew York, and at the close of a term of four years resumed the 
ordinary practice of his profession. 

With the exception of the United States District Attorneyship, 



HON. E. DELAFIELO SMITH. g 

and also excepting the use of Mr. Smith's name, in 1859, in 
connection with the position of counsel to the corporation at New 
York, he has never accepted office nor permitted his friends to 
seek it for him. On one occasion, in 1869, the Eepublican Party 
of the metropolis, in a canvass confessedly hopeless, bestowed 
their full suflPrages upon him for District Attorney of the State, and 
many not of his political affinities added their votes. But it has 
been his practice to decline both executive appointments and 
party nominations, frequently given or tendered, for county, legis- 
lative, judicial, and congressional positions. 

An account of the public sei-vices of Mr. Delafield Smith during 
the four years of his official term as District Attorney and Counsel 
of the United States at New York, would involve the writing of a 
judicial history of the nation during the most momentous period of 
its existence. It is simply true and just to say, that his successes 
before Courts and juries in vindicating the laws of the land were 
unprecedented. In a four years' term, for example, he procured 
six capital conviction.s--six verdicts involving the death penalty— 
against a number no greater obtained for thirty years immediately 
preceding his term, and none since. At the same time, no prosecuting 
officer was ever more glad to drop a prosecution the instant the 
least gleam of innocence appeared, or the moment any exercise of 
mercy seemed reconcilable with the demands of public justice. 
The young, the poor, and the first offender were often released, 
while the more powerful culprit was relentlessly pursued. 

Notwithstanding the extraordinary demands of legal business 
growing out of the war, the civil litigations of tlie government 
and especially its revenue suits were constantly pressed, and the 
sums annually realized were matter of remark, at the time, for 
their number and magnitude. 

The office is one of multifarious duties, which cannot be 
performed by any one individual, without woll-driUed assist- 
ants. Its greatest need is an organizing, administrative, execu- 
tive ability in its chief And this, among liis other qualifications 
693 



was reoiyiiizcil in Mr. Siiiilh liy all who had l>usiiu>s> with the 
omoo. 

The coiuliMiinations j>rociiroil in the cases ot" the British steamers 
Peterboft', Springbok, Stephen Hart, and others, dealt a blow at 
trade with the Southern insurgents carried on through Xassau, 
Matanioras, and other iuteruiediato points, while like tbrleitures 
were inflicted upon the owners of domestic ships and cargoes at- 
tempting to sail with similar destinations and purposes. "NVc pass 
with less particular mention the earlier prize cases of thelliawatha 
and othoi-s, in which ^Ir. Smith, contrary to his custom, employed 
associate counsel. 

Among the celebrated cases successfully conducted, may be 
mentioned that of the rich capitalist Kolmstamm, where, with 
valuable aid, frauds upon the Government amounting in their 
ramitieations to half a million dollai-s were exposed, and an example 
made which saved to the national treasury millions more. AYe 
may also reier to tlie convictions procured by Mr. Sniith, of John 
II. Andrews, the leader of the New Torkriotere in July, 1SG3 ; the 
Parkhill murderers ; the negro Hawkins, hanged for the butchery 
of a ship's m:ister ; the Italian man-slayer, Dimarchi ; the Port 
.Tervis and East New Tork counterfeitei-s ; to ct^es of cruelty to 
seamen, and of nuitinies !\gainst officers ; convictions and forfeitures 
for frauds upon the customs and the internal revenue. 

The prosecutions under the laws for the suppression of the slave 
trade did not stop with the execution of the Captain of the Erie. 
The imprisonment of the merchant Albert Horn, for iitting out 
slave ships; the conviction — after juries imder Mr. Smith's pre- 
decessoi-s had twice disagreed — of Rudolph Blumenburg for perjury, 
as a surety for the discharged slave ship Orion ; the sentence of a 
number of mates ; the condemnations of the Kate, the Weather- 
guage, the Nightingale, the Sarah, and the Augusta ; the marrow 
escaj^e from the galkiws of Haines and Westervelt, by a disagree- 
ment of juries standing nine and ten to three and two for convic- 
tions — iUl tausiht the new lesson that seizures tuid arrests metuit 
6i)4 



nON. K. hKUAVJKhT) HMITH. 7 

unsparing prosecutions. Without enurnoratirif^ otlier caaes, it in 
Hufl5cient to say that in a few months the foreign slave trade wasi, 
forever extirjjated from the port of New York. 

To the wives of Union prisoners and the widows of deceased sol- 
diers, Mr. Smitli, throughout liis term, rendered systematic and 
gratuitous services in procuring the payment of dues and pensions, 
and saving the deductions and delays of the systems of claim 
agency. 

From the age of eighteen, Dclafield Smith has been widely 
known as a terse, strong, and stirring public speaker. 

The following extract from the commencement and the close of 
his published address, July 10th, 18G3,in the case of the Peterhoff, 
is a specimen of the clear and direct style in which he addresses a 
legal argument to a court without a jury: 

Extract feom Aeoument to .the Couet i.v the Case of the 
Peteeiioff. 

" May it pljifjse the C'r/urt: — This case is clothed with profound 
interest in the public mind, both of Europe and America. It is 
brought to the bar of a court, commissioned by the government of 
a great country, and charged with the determination and applica- 
tion of international law. Not solely individuals, but nations, 
are parties to this controversy. Not alone an august judicial tri- 
bunal at Washington, but the imperial courts of a distant conti- 
nent will sit in review of the judgment which shall be pronounced 
here. Yet the testimony spread upon this record is within a nar- 
row scope. The facts marshaled before us are few. A decision 
may be reached without straining the eye in search of precedents, 
beyond such familiar adjudications as have long ago sunk to the 
level margin of an elementary treatise. It is true, indeed, that 
consequences of magnitude have become entangled in the issue 
But for them, the world might well wonder that iio simple a 
case should have bo aroused the populace of one country, and so in- 
terested the publicists of many. 

695 



8 nON. E. DELAFIKLD SMITH. 

" Was the recent enterprise of the Peterhoff honest or fraudulent ? 
Was her vovajjce lawful or illegal? AVas her destination real or 
simulated i 

" In deciding the issue involved in this capture, two classes of 
facts demand attention. First, such as are of a public character, 
too general to require specific proof, and sufficiently notorious to 
come, of their own force, within the range of unaided judicial cog- 
nizance. And, secondly, those established by the testimony taken 
in preparaforio, consisting of rhe responses of witnesses to the stand- 
ing interrogatories administered by the prize commissioners, together 
with such light as an inspection of the ship's papei-s and of her 
cargo may throw upon the intent of those by whom her course has 
been directed. 

" In the summer of 1S61 the foundations of this land trembled 
with an earthquake of territorial w.ar. The country was aroused 
as from a sleep. Guards, of her own appointment, still lingering 
in her high places, were prepared to trample out her life if she lay 
still, and to assassinate her if she arose. Perjured treachery and 
audacious force vied with each other to destroy a government, 
which discovered its worst enemies amongst the most pampered 
and caressed of the children of her protection. The war was not 
for a boundary, a province, or a form of government. Its purpose, 
sorrowfully seen at homo, was to annihilate the unity and life of 
the nation. Its consequences, greedily predicted abroad, were to 
open the best portion of the western hemisphere to insolent foreign 
footsteps, which pei-iodically himiiliate the States of Mexico and 
South America. It was a rising, not to overthrow tyranny, but to 
establish it. Guilty leaders and deluded communities affected to 
reproduce the drama of the American revolution, making oj>pres- 
sion perform now the part that liberty enacted then. 

" Words and acts of attempted conciliation were wasted. Awak- 
ened to its own defence, the government is forced at length to the 
arbitrament of war. The Executive establishes a blockade of the 
iusurrectionary ports. The Emperor of the French, dreaming of 
6'JG 



HON. E, DELAFIELD SMITH. 9 

his personal airgrandizement, and hating the principles of republi- 
can government, weaves wily arts for our embarrassment ; and 
Britain, without his excuses, green with jealousies which our ova- 
tions to her prince should have cleansed away, whets with the 
stone of national animosity the cupidity of her tradesmen. Gov- 
ernment and people, emulating each the bad faith of the other, 
hasten to confer rights upon one belligerent ' and to heap wrongs 
upon the other. Sliips, ciad in iron, start from her docks to prey 
upon the merchant marine of a friendly power, while vessels crowd 
the harbor of New Tork flying the red signals of England, to the 
exclusion of the flag which was once the protection oi American 
commerce. ^ In defiance of the public law of the world, English 
bottoms infest our southern seas, violate the belligerent right ol 
blockade, and bear food, medicines and arms to the enemies of hu- 
man freedom and oi etablo government. 

" Such was the situation of public afiairs, when the naval forces 
and the federal courts of the United States, the one with untiring 
energy, the other with intelligent firmness, surrounded with in- 
creasing hazards the bold breaches of blockade and the wholesale 
indulgences in contraband trade, with which this unnatural conflict 
was fostered and prolonged. 

" Then cunning greed invoked frauds and subterfuges, to do by 
indirection what had proved at length too dangerous and impracti- 
cable for the open arts of enterprise. The little harbor of Nassau, 
in the i.sland of New Providence ; the port of Cardenas, on the 
northerly coast of Cuba, and, at last, the unfrequented region of 
Matamoras, in Mexico, are magnified into vast marts of trade, and 
become the rivals of Liverpool, Havre and New Tork. Ships of 
ponderous tonnage traverse the seas and swarm in the vicinity of 
these inconsiderable places. Owners, shippers and masters, with 
remarkable effrontery, claim that they are centres of substantial, 
legitimate and independent trade. At the same time, the common 
sense and common knowledge of the world acknowledge that 
they are mere stopping places and ports of transhipment, by or 
697 



10 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. 

through which munitions of war and articles of necessity, of com- 
fort and of luxury, may be carried from the British Isles to the in- 
surgent section of the American Union. So the British bark 
" Springl)C)k " sets her chaste sails for Nassau. So the British 
schooner "Stephen Hart" turns an honest face toward Cardenas. 
And thus, we say, the steamer " Peterhofl'" pursues her virtuous 
pathway to Matamoras. But the rough sailor follows in the track 
of each. He sees through the thin disguises. He thrusts aside the 
flimsy veil. He arrests the pi-etender and sends her where she 
must submit to the scrutiny of a court of justice. 

" In the light, then, of the notorious fraud, the simulation, the 
circuity, the indirection, with which this contraband trade to the 
Southern ports has been projected and persisted in, we approach 
the proofs in the case now under consideration. No intelligent 
examination of the testimony now before hs can be attempted 
•without a recognition of the public facts to which I have ad- 
verted. 

" Sailing under such circumstances, it must be conceded that the 
Peterhoff, if guilty, would shroud her purpose in the depths of 
dissimulation; and, if innocent, would fail in no mark of frankness. 
We shall observe, in the course of om* inquiry, how much she has 
displayed of the one, and how little of the other." 

Want of space compels us to omit the body of the argument. 
The following are the closing sentences : 

" A vigorous administration of the public law both of blockade 
and of contraband of war, has been maintained by Great Britain in 
aid of her own wars, as well those that were unjust as those that 
were just. It is the right of nations. The American government 
wiU not surrender it — never, certainly, in a conflict for its exis- 
tence. It is vital to an early and thorough suppression of the 
war of insurrection which has desolated so large a portion of its 
territory. 

"Rebellion, indeed, exhibits ' waning proportions,' but it can- 
698 



HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. H 

not be speedily subdued and extirpated unless want and privation 
exhaust, while armies overthrow. We march upon an extended 
country, sparsely populated, without any one geographical or com- 
mercial key to its military or political power. It has no Gibraltar, no 
Sebastopol, no Paris, no London, and no New York. The end, 
indeed, is certain. The national authority will be established, 
vindicated, enlarged. But that consummation will be near or far, 
as the law of nations, violated without home rebuke by British 
tradesmen, shall be sustained and executed by judicial tribunals. 

" The speedy establishment of freedom and order upon this con- 
tinent, and the consequent termination of a bloody war, is the as- 
piration of pariotism here, and of humanity the world over. The 
achievement of a good so substantial and so general, may be pro- 
moted or retarded by the lessons which cases like this shall teach 
as well to the merchants' and statesmen of Europe, as to the 
power ■which maintains, and the people who suffer from the Great 
Eebellion." 

Before a jury, Mr. Smith is earnest and impressive. On the 
trial of one of the mates of the slave ship Kightingale, before Jus- 
tices IsTelson and Shipman^ the defence was represented by Charles 
O'Conor, James T. Brady, and John llcKeon, who had brought out 
in the testimony the fact that the defendant was the son of a wealthy 
gentleman of Staten Island and a grandson of a former Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

Mr. Smith said : 

" Against crime clearly proved, respectability is not a valid plea. 
As regards the prisoner, his surroundings certainly furnish no ex- 
cuse for this felonious enterprise. As respects his example, they 
add tenfold to the public mischief of his acts. It is not easy to 
keep a common sailor from a slave bark, when such as he lead the 
way. Tou can hardly blame poor Jack for thrusting slaves into 
the loathsome hold, while gentlemen mates, as proved in the evi- 
dence here, keep tally on the deck 1 Dissatisfied with the paternal 
699 



14 HON. i:. PKKAKIKt.n SMITH. 

li.>ino ou tho i^lopos of 8taton Iblaiul, ho a^piro?, perhaps, to build 
loi- his own ploasniv, in tho metropolis itself, a mansion with tho 
gains of aiiveutuivs whieh involvo tho transportation of human 
heiujjs fivni their homos in Afriea to tho strange eoast of Cuba, in 
stilling pens, beneath tropie suns, with tho actual ealenlation, 
fonudeil upon terrible experienee, that if two thiitls die and ono 
thinl land, the veutuix« is a fair success I Might it not have 
occurred to him, that a fortune so constructed would tivublo his 
t'utuiv dreams with insutVorable ivmoi"se i Ought it not to have been 
plain to his intelligence, that the carved cohunns, the expanded 
juvhos, the dizzv domes of a palace so erected, would, in a futm-e 
guilty imagination, rest, for their caryatides, upon the shoulders of 
slave men, tho breasts of slave women, and the bodies of slave 
children i Oh God ! IIow many costly stone structures raise 
their ornamented frents impudently to heaven, while their foun- 
dations are laid — ^literally laid — in hell." 

Upon returning to goneml practice, Mr. Smith achieved profes- 
sional successes a<jaiiu<!t the gv>vernment almost as important as 
those which he had officially gained in its favor. For instance, 
in the mercantile case of Benkard and llutton against Schell, late 
collector of tho customs, to re^covor duties paid under protest, he 
obtained fn.Mn judge and jury, in the United States courts, the 
reversal of a class of statute-constructions immediateh" involving 
several millions of dollars. The treasury department, erroneously 
believing that Mr. Smith's experience in revenue law had 
taken the then district attorney at a disjidvantage, denninded a 
new trial, and sent an officer from AVashington to aid in the de- 
fence. The result of the second adjudication was the establish- 
ment of principles which required a still larger refund of illcgtUly 
exacted duties. The case is now an establishcil prece^lcnt, and its 
just determination is matter of felicit.ition among the imjvrting 
merehants of the country. The following is extracted frem a 
stenogniphio report of the tirst trial : 
700 



HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. 



EXORDIUM OF CLOSING ADDEE8S TO THE JUET, BEFOBE JUDGE BM ALLEY, 

IN THE CASE OF BENKAED AND HUTTON AGAINST BCHELL, 

COLLECTOE OF THE CUSTOMS. 

'■'■May it please the Court, and you, Gentlemen of the Jury : — The 
dark day of battle and rebellion is ended. The laws, long silent, 
again lift up their voices. The national tribunals of justice, 
wearied with long contests between neutral and belligerent, once 
more give access to the citizen as well as to the government. 
Neither may now assume to be above the law. 

" "With the serene reign of order and tranquillity at length re- 
stored, may we net pause for a moment to pay a passing tribute to 
those in the council and the field, to whom that restoration is due. 
And in this, shall we not remember that in the darkest days of all, 
when the national credit was almost exhaasted and the national 
treasuiy well nigh collapsed, the one was restored and the other 
replenished by the generous action of the merchants of New 
York. 

" Shall it be said that the gratitude of the government to them 
finds its sole expression in a rude denial of legal rights on the one 
hand, and in vexatious prosecutions for penalties and forfeitures, 
sustained by unfoiinded imputations of fraud, on the other ? 

" Shall it not rather be said, that having in vain petitioned for 
justice at governmental departments, they at last have sought and 
found it in the courts of their countiy ? And when that justice 
shall have been administered, may they not proudly remember 
that it was awarded by a judge who found in the circle of his 
judicial action ways efiiectually to aid his country in her life and 
death struggle, and at the same time inexorably to guard against 
infraction every provision of the law and eveiy line of the Consti- 
tution, even in the midst of the din of arms." 

From the published speeches of Mr. Smith, we insert in full the 
following brief specimen of a popular a^ppeal : 
9 7oi 



14 HON. E. DELAPIELD SMITH. 

APDREPS AT UNION SQUAEE, AT THE WAR MEETINO, CALI.ED BY HIE 

COMMirfEES OF TUE NEW TOEK CIIAMBEK OF COJISIEKCE, THE 

COMMON COUNCIL, TUE TKION DEFENCE COMMITTEE, AND 

OTUEU BODIES, IN RESPONSE TO AH APPEAL OF THE 

PKE8IDENT OF THE UNHED STATES FOE 

ADDITIONAL MILITAKT FOECES. 

[Extriicted from a printed report of tlie proceedings, prepared 
under the supervision of the Secretary of the Chamber of 
Commerce.] 

"Mr. Smith, being introduced by General Fremont, who pre- 
sided at the stand near the Spingler Institute, was received with 
great enthusiasm, and spoke as follows : 

'■'■Men of New TorJc: — This is, in truth, a colossal demonstra- 
tion. The eye can hardly reach the boundaries of these compact 
thousands. It would be vain for the voice to attempt it. The 
people have come in their might. They have come in their maj- 
esty. They have 'come as the winds come when forests are 
rended.' They have ' come as the waves come when navies are 
stranded.' We are here to-day, not to speak and acclaim, but to 
act and incite to action. [Applause.] We know that this mon- 
ster rebellion cannot be spoken down ; it must be fought down. 
[Cheers.] 

" We are assembled to animate each other to renewed efforts 
and nobler sacrifices, in behalf of our imperilled country. There is 
iiardly one of us who has not, at this hour, some endeared relative 
on the bloody fields of Viigiuia. The voices of our armed and suf- 
fering brethren literally cry to us from the ground. To-day wo 
hear them. To-day let us heed them. [Applause.] The call for 
fresh troops comes to us from a loved and trusted President — from 
faithful and heroic generals. [Loud cheers.] This day determines 
that it shall be answered. [Eenewed cheers.] Let each act as 
though specially commissioned to obtain recruits for a sacred 
service. [Applause.] 

" Fremont is here. You have heard his voice. He Ik:s told us 
702 



HON. E. DKLAFIEI.I) SMITH. 15 

to uphold our government and sustain our generals in the field. 
Whatever officer may go %o battle with the President's commission, 
will be made strong by a loyal people's prayers and confidence 
[Loud cheering.] 

" The Army and Navy, the President, the Cabinet and the Con- 
gress, have done all that can now be effected by them. The issu;- 
to-day is with the people. Do you ask activity on the part of tlie 
President? Eecall his personal labor and supervision in the coun- 
cil and the field. Do you seek a policy? Look to his solemn con- 
ference with the loyalists of the border States. [Cheers.] Do you 
demand legislation ? Witness the matured laws that Congress har. 
spread upon the statute-book. A jurist, from the bench of our 
highest tribunal, once declared a maxim which shocked the conn- 
try and the world. It is ours, with our representatives, to respond : 
A rebel has no rights which a white man is hound to respect. [Loud 
and long continued cheering, with waving of hats and handker- 
chiefs.] 

" A traitor cannot own a loyalist of any race. Nor can ' ser- 
vice be due' to national conspirators, except at the call of public 
justice. [Laughter and applause.] 

"The limits of civilized warfare must and will be observed ; but 
those limits are broad as the boundaries of the ocean, and they lie 
far beyond the lives and the treasure of traitors in arms. [Cheers.] 
In this mortal combat between the enemies and the friends of 
republican liberty, wherein treason scruples at nothing, patriots 
miLst neglect no means that G.)d and nature have placed in their 
hands. [Loud cheers.] 

" These institutions were reared on the ruins of British pride. 
Their foundations must be reconstructed on the crumbled preten- 
sions of southern oligarchs. [Renewed cheers.] We must, and we 
will, repel force by force. They who press an iron heel upon the 
heart of our noble nation, must perish by the sword of her avenging 
sons. God grant the time may be near, when every rebel leader 
may say his prayers, and bite the dust, or hang as high as Ilaman. 
7U3 



16 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. 

If we are wise, and true, iiml brave, the American Union, like the 
Bnn in the heavens, shall be clouded but for a night. Still shall it 
move ouward, and every obstacle in its pathway be withered and 
crushed. [Eenewcd and continued cheering.] 

"Victory, indeed, cannot be won, except by arms. Our institu- 
tions were the gift of the wounded and dead of the armies of Wash- 
ington. Shakesi>eare said, and we re-utter in a higher sense, 

' Tilings bought with blood must he by blood maintained.' 

" Look to our armies, and rally the people to swell their wasted 
ranks. Go, you who can. And spare neither labor nor money to 
enable others to march to battle. [Cheers.] 

" Let loyal men permit no question to distract or divide them. 
Care not what a man's theories may be, so that his heart feels and 
his hand works for the Union. Every citizen, North or South, 
who prays for the success of our arms, and who laboi-s for the vin- 
dication of our Constitution, whatever may be his politics or opin- 
ions, is a patriot. [Cheers.] They who condemn any class of our 
fellow-citizens, because of differences on collateral issues — those 
who declare that a loyal abolitionist is on a level with an armed 
secessionist — are wrong in head, or at heart unsound. [Applause.] 

" Let assertions like this be at an end. Let all loyal men, and 
all loyal journals, abandon arguments which bear the dull and 
eotmterfcit ring of traitor philosophy. [Loud applause.] 

" For the rest — for those who not alone sec/n, but are, disloyal — 
let the people arise in their might, and silence them all, whether 
they speak in the street to the few, or seek, through the public 
press, to poison the many. Law, in many things, cannot go so far, 
nor accomplish so much, as determined public opinion. [Cheers.] 
While men in North Carolina and Tennessee, with manly courage, 
trike in their districts, at the hydra of rebellion, shall not we, in 
New Yorlc, war upon the spirit of secession in every form ? [Ap- 
plause, and cries of ' We will.'] The old flag mirst be the para- 
704 



HON. E. DELAPIELD SMITH j/jr 

mount object of all. It will be loved by the faithful. By the 
false, It must be feared. [Yociferous cheering.] 

"They talk of a distinction between fidelity to the government 
and devotion to the administration. In the day of national danger 
or disaster, the two sentiments are inseparable. Distnist him who 
professes the one only to disclaim the other. [Applause.] When 
the tempest howls, no prayer breathed for the ship, forgets the pilot 
at her helm. [Applause and cheers.] 

"Loyalty knows no conditions. Stand by the government » 
Scrutinize its action; but do it like earnest patriots-not like 
covert traitors. Stand by the administration! In times like 
these, party spirit should he lulled. That spirit was hushed in the 
era of the Eevolution-in the days of Madison and Monroe-and 
when the hero of New Orleans cnished the rising form of Nullifica- 
tion. Our fathers stood by Jackson as their sires sustained Wash- 
ington. It is our privilege to uphold the arm of a President, great 
and pure, who will share their glory on the page of history. [Loud 
cheering.] 

" I must trespass no longer. [Cries of 'go on, go on.'] No fel- 
low-citizens ; I will bid you farewell. Our illustrious Secretary of 
State has this day given to the army the only son not already in 
the public Service. Let us emulate his spirit of sacrifice, and think 
nothing too dear to offer on the altar of our couutry. 

"Mr. Smith spoke with a clear, loud voice, and retired in the 
midst of most enthusiastic cheering." 

The following tribute to the memory of the gifted and lamented 
James T. Brady, was delivered at a meeting of the bar in New 
Fork, in Februaiy, 1869, and we find it published with the pro- 
ceedings : 

SPEECH OF E. DKLAFIELD SMITH ON TUB DEATH OF JAMEB T. BKADT. 

"Mr. E. Delafield Smith said:-J/r. President .—I know weU 
that occasions like this are best adorned by those who bring to 
705 



IS HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. 

them the dignity of yeai-s, the lustre of learning, the glory of re- 
nown. And I rejoice that while the scythe of death has been busy 
in our midst, peers of our illustrious friend still remain to honor 
his obsequies. Tet it must be acknowledged that James T. Brady 
possessed characteristics, extraordinary in degree if not in kind, 
calculated to inspire and to justify, in younger and humbler mem- 
bers of his profession, a desire to press forward and stand among 
the foremost at his bier. 

" Jimiore and even juvenals at the Bar ; aspirants upon the very 
threshold of manhood; youths still lingering in academies and 
schools ; and little children, tender as those oui" Saviour cai-essed, 
were as dear to his presence as the most accomplished of the 
crowned intellectual pi-inces with whom it was his pride to cope in 
the forum, and his delight to mingle in social festivities. 

" To all who approached him in his life, rang out the welcome of 
his cheerful voice. By its dying echoes, all alike are summoned to 
his tomb. The greatest who Icneel there must make room for the 
least. If, at the home so lately his, where we looked upon his face 
for the last time ; if, from the coffin, which was buried in flowei-s 
before the cold earth had leave to press it, his eyes could have 
opened and calmly viewed the scene — no floral harp, no cross nor 
crown, however beautiful or elaborate, would have won a sweeter 
smile than the simplest wreath that struggled for its place in the 
general profusion. 

" His khidness and courtesy were universally bestowed ; and in 
view of this, it is remarkable that they were so singularly accepta- 
ble and flattering to every individual who came within their reach. 
But they were a matter of heart, not of manner — too respectful to 
ofiend, too genuine to be resisted. As the generous light of the 
sun may illumine half the world, yet the rays that fall on us seem 
peculiarly our own ; so the genial glow of his kindness cheered us 
all, and yet each felt himself the special recipient of his favor. 

"There were times, however, when his generosity became 
marked and demonstrative. It was interesting to observe with 
706 



HON. E. DFLAFIELD SMITH. 1& 

what judgment and taste it even then was guarded and directed 
In the celebrated trial of the ' Savannah Privateers '— to which a 
preceding speaker referred with great kindness to both the living 
and the dead — where we felt the blows which he delighted to deal 
upon a prosecution, he was associated with some eminent advocates 
and also with some unknown to professional fame or experience. 
In his matchless address to the jury, he repeated, with careful 
credit, some of the arguments which these humbler allies had used, 
and paid them a tribute of praise not less just in conception than 
delicate in expression. Of four leading counsel there arrayed — 
Lord, Evarts, Brady, Larocque — three have gone to their long 
home. 

" In the prominent cases of Home and of Haynes, arising under 
the laws for the suppression of the slave trade, and in the great 
fraud case of Kohnstamm, it will not be easy to forget either the 
ability of his defenses, or his subsequent assurance of sympathy in 
the anxious labors which those prosecutions involved. 

" He never entered a court-room but smiles from Bench and Bar 
responded to his presence. He never appeared upon a platform 
but to be greeted by thronging auditors. No banquet saw dimin- 
ished guests while he reanained to speak. 

' From the cliarmed council to tlie festive board. 
Of human feelings the iinbouncled loid.' 

" A lawyer, an orator, a scholar, a gentleman — all thut these 
made him was given to his country in her day of danger, and to 
the land of his ancestors in every hopeful struggle. 

" Great in intellect, great in heart — 

' See, what a grace was seated on this brow ; 
Hj'perion's curls ; the front of Jovo liimself.' 

"Our hearts may well be touched as thoy rarely have been. 
Words, unless of fire — tears, unless of blood — should only mock 
their grief. 

707 



a.) HON. E. PKLATflELD SMITH. 

' To oritors, whom vot our covinoil.* yiold. 
Movirn for the veteran hero of your field I 
Ye mou of wit iiuU social eloquence, 
lie was your biMther — bear his ashoe hence 1 
While powers of mind almost of boundless range, 
Complete in kind, as rarious in their change, 
I While eloquence, wit, poesy, and mirth. 

That humbler harmonist of care on earth. 
Survive within our souls — while lives our sense 
Of pride in merit's proud preeminence, 
Long shall wo seek his likeness — long in vain.* 

'' "Wlien ' a miijlity spirit is eclipsed ' — -svlien death comes to the 
noble aiul bra\e, Ave canuot but be glad it is the common lot. We 
wonld not shrink forever from the dark path which they are forced 
to tread. We would not fail to seek them at last in the better 
world beyond. 

" Gentle, genial, generous spirit ! Our hearts shall long resound 
with the sweet music of the solemn Cathedral, which breathed a 
l>rayer for thy peace and rest. 

' Stay not thy career : 

I know wo lo'.low to eternity I* " 

The following after-dinner speech we copy from the "Ameri- 
can Scotsman" of Fobruarv, ISTO. containing a report of 
a celebration in Now Yoik of the birth of Eobcrt Burns: — 

SPEECH ON S0OTI^V>"P DELFVEEEP AT ErKNs' AN"XIVEKSAEY PINXEK. 

" The Hon. E. Delafield Smith, on being called on, responded 
to the next toast, Scotlaxp, as follows : 

"As Daniel Wel>ster said of Massachusetts, Scotland 'speaks 
for herself.' History and philosophy, science and learning, poetry 
and romance are steeds to the chariot of her fame as onwanl it 
moves from generation to generation. Like the morning it 
advances, growing brighter as it dawns on each succeeding age. 
70S 



HON. K. DKLAKIKLI) HMITII. 21 

"It iH a luxury to know that we may indulf^e in limitlrjKH praiVo 
of Scotland without arouHing the jcalouHy of cither of the f^funtrieB 
in her immediate neighhourhood. For Englinhrnen and IriBhmen 
will impute all her glory to the blood of their own aneeHtorg, Kown 
across the horder centuries ago I Do we not rcafl that Saxons 
conquered tJio Lowlands and made them their own in the year of 
our Lord 449 ? And do wo not learn tluit a Celtic tribe from Krin 
settled on the west coast in A. D. 503, becarac the dominant race, 
and even gave the very name of Scots to the Picts who 
])receded tlicm? (Applause.) ' 

"If we extol her for her PreshytcrianiHm — that sturdy church 
which she planted on American soil — may it not afford a malicious 
delight to her rivals, as well as some special eatisfaction to her 
friends — for she is always hospitable — tfj know that whiskey and 
ale are among her principal productions? (Laughter.) If we 
praise her salmon, her opponents may gnaw at her herrings. If 
we admire her tartan, her enemies may hang on her hemp. (Re- 
newed laughter.) If we exalt her schools, it may consr>le her 
competitors to confess that the salaries of her schoolmasters depend 
npon the fluctuating price of oatmeal. [Continuefl laughter.] If 
she is the land of books, we must acknowledge her alike the ' land 
o' cakes.' If she produces a brilliant literature, it is kind to her 
neighbors to drench it with cold 'reviews,' so that its fame shall 
not glow too brightly in the admiration of the world. If she 
launches great steamers you may still taunt her on her canal-boats. 
If she glories in her steam-engines, she yet furnishes the navies of 
the world with sails, but leaves them, it piust be confessed, the 
' airs ' that swell them. 

" And here, to be serioas, I cannot refrain from alluding to the 
personal manners of Scotchmen, by which they are sometimes 
prqudiced in the minds of those who fail to realize the value of 
sincerity in human intercourse. They have not the formal polite- 
ness of the English, the cordiality of the Irish, nor the suavity of 
the French. But a Scotch smile is a reality. It iutea^ly meaub 
709 



22 HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. 

all it indicates. J^sse qvam vidcri. Toil remember the story of the 
Frenchman who discovered a neighbor in his carrijifje, and told him 
to get out. ' Sir,' said the intruder, ' you asked me to get in.' ' Ah,' 
was the mild response, ' you were welcome to the compliment, 
but I want the carriage myself.' A true Scotchman would grudge 
the politeness, but give you the drive. [Laughter and applause.] 

" No man can do justice to this steadfast, heroic, beautiful, wild 
and classic laud, without recalling the valor of her historic battle- 
fields — without recounting her aiTay of names inscribed at every 
goal of human achievement — nor without rising to a sublime 
description of her lakes and rivers, her heaths and highlands, her 
cataracts and torrents. [Cheeis.] 

" But here we approach the domain, not of eloquence, but of 
poetiy ; and iipon him that may not without presumption invoke 
either muse, silence is doubly imposed. [Go on.] 

" Yes, I would not sit down without pointing to one immortal 
name on Scotland's roll of honor, to illustrate that grandest featm-e 
of Scottish character, intrepid integrity. I allude not now to the 
glorious humanity of Burns. I refer to his great successor, Walter 
Scott. [Applause.] My theme is not to-night the charm of his 
song, nor the witchery of his romance. I would recall your 
memory to that chapter in his biography which relates that when 
his fame was at its height aud his fortune supposed to have been 
made, the failures of certain publication-houses carried with 
them his pecuniary destruction. As endoi-ser upon their paper, he 
was overwhelmed with debts amoimting to seven hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars. Brave as Alexander, he faced his 
calamities without complaint, and at the age of fifty-five went to 
work to retrieve them. At his death five hundred thousand 
dollars had been paid, and the remainder was in the way of speedy 
discharge. Refusing all composition or settlement, he laid down 
life on the altar of his Scotch honesty. Born in the year and on 
the day that gave the first Napoleon birth, his courage was of 
a typo that wai-riors might envy. [Cheers.] 
710 



H O N . E . D E L A F I E L D S M I T n . 23 

" TliG magnanimity of Walter Scott toward his literary rivals 
illustrates another manly trait of Scottish character. The 
greatest of his poetical competitors was the illustrious Byrc:i. 
Acknowledging that Byron ' bate ' him, he yet forgot an early 
thrust received in the satire, and became as kind to his brother 
poet through his life as he proved tender and just to his mangled 
memory. [Loud cheering.] And the genius of that brilliant bard 
must itself be largely credited to Scotland. For he himself says : 

' 1 am half a Scot by birth, and bred 

A whole one, and my heart flies to my head, — 

As ' Auld Lang Syne ' brings Scotland, one and all, 
Scotch plaids, Scotch snoods, the blue hills and clear streams, 

The Dee, the Don, Balgounie's brig's black wall. 
All my boy feelings, all my gentler dreams 

Of what I then dreamt, clothed in their own pall, 
Like Banquo's offspring. Floating past mo seems 

My childhood in this childishness of mine — 

I care not — 'tis a glimps of ' Auld Lang Syne.' 

And though, as you remember, in a fit 

Of wrath and rhyme, when juvenile and curly, 
T rail'd at Scots to show my wrath and wit, 

Which must be owned was sensitive and surly, 
fet 'tis in vain such sallies to permit, 

They cannot quench young feelings fresh and early ; 
I ' scotch'd not kUled ' the Scotchman in my blood. 
And love the land of ' mountain and of flood.' 

[Cheering and Applause."] 

While Delafield Smith is a sound and laborious lawyer, he is by 
no means a mere lawyer. When, in the heat of our .late national 
struggle, the war department determined upon a seizure of all the 
recorded telegraphic dispatches, he was selected to arrange a 
simultaneous descent upon the telegrai3hic offices in the city of 
New York. And the task was performed with such proficiency 
as to receive the commendation of the government, and at the 
711 



HON. E. DELAFIELD SMITH. 

same time with siicli delicacy as to induce the thanks of the 
companies for his avoidance of all public exposure of private 
l)usincss and social communications. Again. "When a public 
mail, made up at Liverpool, was found on the PeterhojQT, and a 
special attorney of the Navy Department clamored for its 
violation and exposure in court, Mr. Smith, sinking the lawyer in 
the statesman, ordered tlic seals to remain unbroken. The State 
Dejiartment and also even the President himself returned to him 
their special acknowledgments for his 'Sagacity in saving the 
country from a most awkward complication, which would have 
been likely to result in a war with England at a time when the 
rebellion was too formidable to render other entanglements at 
all safe. And again. When ships, bound for blockaded ports, 
were brought for adjudication, the ordinary process of obtaining, 
for the urgent use of the government, arms found on board, was 
slow and tedious ; but the task was habitually accomplished by Mr. 
Smith with such promptitude, as to wring from Secretary Stanton 
the " wish that the energy of the District Attorney at J^ew York 
could be imparted to every agent of the War Department."' 

Mr. Smith has accumulated a large library of standard works 
in almost every department of science, learning, and literature. 
He delights in original editions, in unique illustrations, and iu 
works of permanent value, not always so popular as to escape be- 
coming " out of print." 

He is a man of culture, of scholastic tastes, of literary dis. 
cernmcnt and capacity,— just and generous in his dealings, true 
and honorable under all circumstances, bountiful but discriminat- 
ing in his benevolences, devoted to his home, of genuine wit and 
genial humor — though with an apparent under-cmTent of sadness. 
A warm partizan, he has yet no acerbities. It is often remarked 
that his personal friends are quite as numerous among political 
uppouents as in the ranks of his own party. 

Perhaps no man ever carried the obligation of gratitude for 
political, professional, or personal favor, further than he; while at 
712 



HON. E DELAFIELD SMITH. 25 

the 6ame time no personal disappointment seems to lessen liif* 
friendship for a public man whom he has thoroughly admired, nor 
his zeal for a cause which he has heartily espoused. 

That the reader may foi-m a judgment of his own of Mr. Smith's 
ability, wo have given specimens of his oratory. Our limits 
do not permit additional selections from his literary and 
poetical writings. These, like his speeches, arc both stamped 
■with a certam intensity and force ; and in a notice of one of his 
early poems, Mr. Brj-ant remarked — "the versiiication is un- 
commonly easy and flowing, and among the thick-coming 
fancies of the writer, arc many of great beauty and brillancy." 

Mr. Smith resides in New York ; but enjoys, for more than 
merely the summer months, his country home and farm at 
Shrewsbury, near Long Branch, New Jersey. 

Early in life, he man-ied a daughter of Rev. Doctor Gilbert 
Morgan, a scholarly gentleman, of Bradford Springs, Sumter, 
South Carolina. Of their seven children five are living. At 
Oreenwood the graves of two, early deceased, bear the followina 
inscription, penned by Mr. Smith : — 

With cliastcncd prido 
We nive them l;ack to God to keep , 
Too grateful ior their lives to weep 

Th.nt tl.ey have died. 

713 




^> / j^/' /Z ^ ^y< r/ 



ROBERT n. BERDELL. 

■jf^>UCCESSFUL capacity is the rifrlitful test of genius. Few 
j^k only possess this capacity. It is the Promethean spark that 
^% kindles in inspired breasts that golden glow of enthusiasm, 
^^ that assails great endeavor and achieves great results. It is 
this that compasses great military achievements, that crowns with 
sublhne victory the arts, that gives added lustre to literature, that 
in every field of the world's work, in every department of human 
labor is the impelling force accomplishing great and noble ends. 
Such men are the blest of earth, its motive power, its heroes, its true 
sovereigns. Such men, and such only are entitled to rank as "Men 
of Progress." To this high and meritorious distinction few are 
more justly entitled than the subject of this sketch — Robert H. 
BerdeU. 

He was born October 1st, 1820, near Somerstown, Westchester 
County, New York. It early became necessary that , he must 
earn his own living. This did not dishearten him, other than 
the painful necessity it entailed of enjoyment of only veiy 
limited means of education. Nature is always compensative. 
Self- sustenance and a knowledge that he must establish his 
own position in life, engendered in him a spirit of independence, 
self-reliance, pluck and persistency of more salutary and enduring 
use in his earnest life-battle than aU the wisdom of schools and col- 
leges, and developing power and energies that under more seeming 
auspicious circumstances might have lain wholly dormant ; or, at 
the best, only attained enervated development. He blended econ- 
omy with industry. The result was, that while yet a yomig man, 
he was enabled to go into business for himself — the produce com- 
71.5 



mission business. Encouraging success crowned bis business efforts. 
In June, 1843, Le married Miss Elizabeth A. Clowes, a most esti- 
mable young lady of Hempstead, Long Island. He bad scarcely been 
mai'ried a year, and the future, in a business point of view, seemed 
to open bripjhtly before bim, when a sudden cloud of financial em- 
barrassment darkened the bright prospect, and swept away nearly 
evei-ything that he had so carefully and sedulously saved by indus- 
try and economy. This was no fault of his, but the result of too 
extended credit to a firm in Charleston, S. C, and the failm-e of the 
latter to meet their obligations to him. He was compelled to begin 
his business life over again, but experience had taught him a most 
useful lesson. He resumed business upon a more firm and practical 
basis. Prompt in meeting his engagements; untiringly industrious; 
honest and straight-forward in his dealings, his business career is 
briefly told. For twenty-three years he carried on the produce and 
commission business at No. 32 Front Street, New York. In all the 
financial revulsions of those years, bringing disaster and ruin to 
some of the oldest and stauuchest commercial houses of the city ; 
his house stood firm and unshaken. He retired with a large for- 
tune, the richly deserved reward of ability, firmness, patience and 
unswerving integrity. 

But we must go back a little iu urn* sketch. The sound manage- 
ment and executive ability that could so pi"osperously conduct his 
large and gi-owingly extended business, nmst be equally successful 
in other administrative labors. In 1857, Mr. Berdell was elected a 
director of the Erie Eailroad Company, and he was at once given a 
place on the Executive and Financial committee — a place he con- 
tinued to fill during his connection with the company. He was 
foremost in the reorganization of the company in 1858 and 1859, at 
which time the earnings of the company were not enough to pay the 
running expenses and coupons. He took an active part in pacify- 
ing the discontent ni Susquehaima, occasioned by lack of funds to 
pay the men. He was in imminent danger of his life at the Long 
Dock Company Tunnel riot ; but, fearless of personal peril, did not 
716 



BERDELL. 



debar him in the discbarge of bis duties. At this time he was Pres 
ident of the company, and all of its affairs Tvere entii-ely in his charge 
to Its completion. When he assumed control of its manao-ement it- 
afhm-swerein a deplorable condition ; its liabilities under protest 
and everything at great discredit owing to previous mismana-^ement 
false estimates, and exorbitant payments to contractors. Mr' 
Berdell at once set to work to extricate it from its financial embarrass- 
ments, and finished this most important outlet for the Erie Rail 
road Company, and in the completion of this connecting link, opened 
th.s great highway from the great A\'est by the ErieEailroad to tide- 
water opposite the city of New York, where vessels of any size can 
load for any part of the world. He completed the excavation and 
rock-cut m the Bergen tunnel, at sometWng less than one million 
of dollars. He constructed large piers, freight-houses, machine- 
shops, and many miles of main aud side track of the Lono- Dock 
Company's propei-ty. In 1858, when he first assumed the Pridency 
of the company, the stock and bonds were of little value, command- 
ing m themarket only half their par value. Mr. Berdell injured his 
own credit for a time, as a merchant, by this undertaking. Many be 
lieved that he had attempted what he could not successfully accom- 
phsh, as aU previous parties had failed in the enterprise ; but, not- 
withstanding this, and the entreaties of his friends, he boldly pushed 
on w,th thcMork, lending his personal credit and endorsing the 
company's liabilities in large amounts to secure its completion. °For- 
inidable as were the difficulties to be overcome,and notwithstanding 
the responsibihties assumed, he had the satisfaction of seein<. the 
unprovements completed nearly as they are to-day. With the^com- 
pletjonof the work the company's credit so much improved that the 
stock sold at 140, and the bonds at 110, a result giving convincing 
attestation of his high administrative capacities 

In the early part of 1861, Mrs. BerdeU died. After two years 
Mr. Berdell married the beautiful and accom]>lished Miss Har- 
riet Barnard of J^ew York; when, with his lovely bride, he made 
the tour of Europe, being absent about a year. In 1864, the Direc 



717 



4 ROBERT H. BERDELL. 

tors of the Erie Eailwaj Company elected biin President of tbit^ 
great corporation. The resxdt showed tliat he not only did not disap- 
point the expectations of his moat ardent friends in accepting this 
arduous and trying posi ion ; but, that the company wisely consulted 
its best interests, and cbose the right man for the right place. The 
company, through the acts of his predecessors, had a large floating 
debt and contracts for equipments amounting to near ten millions 
of dollars, which must be paid within a few months. The magni- 
tude of these liabilities were appalling, but Mr. Berdell possessed a 
determined will and indomitable energy. He entered with earnest 
determination upon the discharge of his important trust ; he work- 
ed hard and early and late, often until midnight, to make himself 
thoroughly familiar with all the details and duties appertaining to 
his onerous charge. In addition to baing President, he was Treas- 
urer also, and personally attended to all receipts and payments, 
loans and negotiations. Under his management the finances of the 
coi-poration were conducted with fidelity and ability. All pay- 
ments were made as prompt as at any bank. No extra interest or 
commission was ever paid by him. When his connection first began 
with the company, its earnings were about §5,500,000; and, during 
his management it increased to $15,500,000, an increase of 10,000,- 
000 per year. During this period there was a time, indeed, when 
the Erie Eailway Company's stock sold higher than the New York 
Central, and the recei]>ts for passengers were within a few hundred 
thousand dollars of the latter road. In short, he brought the high 
credit, by economy and care in the expenses, and by the negotiation 
of a foreign loan, and extending the Company's mortgages as they 
matured, thus placing the financial condition of the company on the 
best possible footing, and the enjoyment of unlimited confidence and 
credit in this country and Europe. 

Mr. BerdeU had the entire confidence of his Board of Directors. 
No contracts, after having been investigated by the directors pursu- 
ant to his ad\-ice, ever proved disadvantageous to the interest of the 
company ; and, it may be stated further in this connection that, 
718 



EOBEET n. BEEDELL. 5 

neither the directors of the Erie Railway Company, nor the Lon^ 
Dock Company, ever refused to ratify and approve his recommenda" 
tions. In all that pertains to the past solid and reliable progress of 
this corporation, the name and wise counsel of Mr. Berdell are more 
•learly identified than those of any other person. He warned his 
rhrectors not to enter into any alliance or guarantee with the Boston 
■ Hartford and Erie Railway Company, and assured them that it would 
lead to bankruptcy. For his persistency and determination to save 
the Erie Radway Company, certain members of the Board of Direc- 
tors entered into a conspiracy with outside parties and members of 
the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railway Company to buy in the open 
market proxies, and vote on stock not their own. Through this con- 
spiracy, and by bribes and corruptions at the election on the 8th of Oc- 
tober,1867, theaffairaof the company came under a new management. 
On the very day of the election, this new management passed by 
resolution, a guarantee on five millions of Boston, Hartford and Erie 
Raih-oad Company bonds. The Erie Railway is now in default of 
the conpons-thus verifying Mr. Berdell's warning to his Board of 
Directors. He also refused to act or connect his name with the Bos- 
ton, Hartford and Erie Railway Company's mortgage for twenty 
mdhons of doUars recorded in his favor in the States of New York 
Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and known as the Berdell Bonds' 
Much more might be written of Mr. Berdell's connection with the 
Ene Railway. It is unnecessaiy, in a sketch like the present, to .^o 
into more extended details. It is enough to know, that his adminis- 
tration was characterized by consummate ability; and, as far as the 
interests of the road and the public are concerned, it is only to be 
regretted that the affairs are not still under the same judicious con- 
trol. We will dismiss the subject with simply recalling the fact that 
in 1866, Mr. Berdell gave the famous Sir Morton Peto and party a 
banquet at Dehnonico's, and a special train over the Erie Raihvay 
and, at the same time, warned the Board of Directors not to bo en- 
treated into any magnificent financial scheme. 
In 1866, Mr. Berdell bought the old family homestead of the TVic k 
719 



6 ROBE KTH.BER DELL. 

Iiaiu estate at Goslicn, tbo county seat of Orange County, N. Y., a 
beautiful and thriving village on tlie Eric Railway, sixtj-one miles 
from New York City. lie resides here with his family, and cer- 
tainly within this radius of New York, environed as it is by beauti- 
ful country seats, there is none possessing more highly cultivated 
grounds, or adornments more tasteful and elegant. By bis perma- 
nent improvements he has made it one of the most valuable estates 
is this country ; and in after years it will be a notable remember- 
ance of him. Ho is still a busy worker ; he could not be idle. He 
is bank director, as also director of the National Trust Company, and 
of several insurance companies in New York and Brooklyn, besides 
being president of the asylum now being erected by the State of 
New York at Middletown, New York. Still in the prime of life and 
usefulness, doubtless many years remain to him to enjoy the fi-uits 
of his past laboi-s. Socially, he is one of the most affable and agree- 
able of men ; and there are few possessing a finer personal appear- 
ance. He has a commanding figure, and a countenance which, 
while beaming with benevolence, is expressive of great firmness and 
decision. By persistent and steady effort, he has won fortune and 
position. Battling with early disadvantages, he has risen superior 
to every obstacle. His distinguishing characteristics are, unconquer- 
able energy and uufliuching integrity. Few have achieved more 
deserved success, and none are more worthy of it 
720 




r-' . vL<^ 



vi<^V/ At 



SILAS SEYMOUR 

°^i^ N the development of the material resources of the United 
Statei, by that elaborate system of railroads and canals 
which traverse our country in all directions, bringing the 
jple and products of its remotest jjarts into comparative proximity 
with each other, there have been mechanical and engineering ques- 
tions presented, whose solution has required the highest order of 
ability, as well as great powers of invention and perseverance. That 
these problems have been successfully met, and the most gigantic ob- 
stacles overcome, is evidenced by the results, which we see before 
us every day. And it is gratifying to us, as Americans, to feel that 
these results have been accomplished almost entirely by the ability 
and perseverance of our American engineers, — some of whom per- 
haps may have received their education abroad, but the majority 
of whom are truly to be termed self-made men, and who have been 
educated by their own works. 

In this latter class stands the subject of this sketch, wlio, liter- 
ally beginning at the foot of the ladder, has by his own energy and 
ability risen to its top, and having been actually engaged in some 
of the most important engineering operations of the day, now, 
while yet scarcely past the meridian of life, ranks as one of the 
most prominent civil engineers of our country, and may be fitly 
regarded as one of the " men of progress." 

Silas Seymour was born June 20th, 1817, in the town of Still- 
water, Saratoga County, State of New Tork. The first eighteen 
years of his life were spent upon a farm with his father. Deacon 
John Seymour, and his grandfather. Deacon William Seymour, 
who, soon after the Revolutionary War, in which he took an active 
part, had removed from Connecticut to the State of New Tork. 
721 



2 SILAS SEYMOUR. 

During this period, jouiig Seymoiu- had no opportunity of obtain- 
ing other than a good common school education, and a part of the 
time he worked as an apprentice at the carpenter and joiner trade. 

In the spring of 1835, he obtained a situation as axeman in 
one of the engineering parties which were making the first surveys 
for the New York and Erie Railroad, through the interipr of Sul- 
livan county, New York. After serving about one month in that 
capacity, he was transferred to another party which had been or- 
ganized at the town of Deposit, on the Delaware river, and pro- 
moted to the position of rodman. 

During the latter part of the same year the first forty miles of 
the road, extending from Deposit to the mouth of the Callicoon 
creek, were placed under contract, and Mr. Seymour was appoint- 
ed Assistant Engineer, in charge of a portion of the work. Ben- 
jamin Wright was at that time Chief Engineer of the New York 
and Erie Kailroad, Edwin F. Johnson was Associate Engineer, and 
H. C. Seymour was Resident Engineer, in charge of the forty miles 
under construction, and also of the surveys westward toward Bing- 
hamton. 

In the spring of 1837, work was suspended upon the railroad, 
and the subject of our sketch embraced the opportunity of devot- 
ing his time to study in the Fredonia (Chatauqua county) Aca- 
demy, where he acquired a knowledge of chemistry, natural philo- 
sophy, and the higher mathematics. 

The work was resumed in 1838, and Mr. Seymour's connection 
with the road continued through all its various phases of prosperity 
and adversity until its final completion in 1851, at wliich time he 
was acting as Chief Engineer of the "Western Division ; Mr. Hor- 
atio Allen was at that time the Consulting Engineer of the Com- 
pany. Major Thompson S. Brown had acted as Chief Engineer 
until the completion of the road to Owego, in Tioga county, when 
he was appointed by the Russian government in the place of Major 
"Whistler, who had died while in charge of the railroads then 
being constructed in that country. 
722 



SILAS SEYMOUR. « 

o 

During Major Brown's connection with the Erie road he had 
always placed Mr. Sejmour in charge, as Division Engineer of the 
most difficult portions of the work, both as regards location and 
construction ; and when he resigned to go to Eussia, the company 
continued hnn in tbe duty to which he had been previously assi^^n- 
ed by the Chief Engineer, which was tliat of making the final "re 
^^slon and location of the line between Corning and Dunkirk, the 
western terminus of the road, on Lake Erie. 

In the performance of this duty he recommended several 
changes m the line which had been previously adopted and in part 
constructed by the company, in order to shorten the route, and 
improve the ruling grades. Among the most important of these 
changes, which were all adopted by the company, was that in the 
hne between the mouth of Little Valley Creek (now the town of 
Salamanca) and Dunkirk. This change, although it involved the 
loss of several hundred thousand dollars of previous expenditure 
resulted in reducing the maximum grade, ascending eastwardlv 
trom Lake Erie, from sixty to forty feet to the mile, and in short- 
ening the distance more than five miles. Its ultunate saving to 
the company has been almost incalculable. 

The New York and Erie Railroad, during the many years of its 
construction, afforded the best possible school for the education of 
evil engineers. It embraced aU the varieties of work (exoept tun- 
neling) that are to be found on the most difficult lines in this or 
any other country, not excepting even the Union and the Central 
Pacific Eailroads. The best and most experienced engineering 
talent available in the country, outside of its regular corj.s, was 
frequently called into requisition, either by the State, or by the 
company, for the purpose of consulting or deciding upon the se- 
lection of routes or the character of structures. The most favor- 
able opportunities were thus afforded the yomiger engineers for 
becoming familiar with the views and experiences of the veterans 
m the profession. The result has been that many of the most suc- 
cessful railway engineers in the country have obtained their first 
723 



4 SILAS SEYMOUR. 

anil most useful lessons, from their early experience npon the New 
York and Erie Railroad. 

Upon the opening of the road to Port .Tervis, and subsequently 
to Binghamton, the Board of Directors passed resolutions, com- 
plimenting Mr. Seymour for his skill and energy in completing, 
within the requisite time, the difficult and expensive work over the 
Shawangunk mountain, and along the Delaware river ; and when 
the road commenced running between those points, he was appoint- 
ed Superintendent of Transportation upon that portion of it. 

As the Erie Railroad approached completion, the necessity oi a 
railroad connection westward became apparent. The New York 
Central Railroad interest had secured control of the Buffalo and 
State Line Railroad, which they were constructing with the nar- 
row gauge (four feet eight and one half inches) and had arranged 
to pass mider the Erie track at a point about three miles east of 
Dunkirk. The Erie and North East Railroad was also being built 
with a view of extending the narrow gauge to Erie, in Pennsyl- 
vania, and there connecting, and "breaking," with the Ohio gauge, 
of four feet ten inches. 

Mr. Seymour at this time, having obtained consent of his own 
company, organized the "Dunkirk and State Line Railroad 
Company," of which he became Chief Engineer, and commenced 
building the road. He also secured an exclusive lense of the 
Erie and North East Railroad for the term of twenty years, with 
the understanding that the six feet gauge of the New York and 
Erie Railroad, and no other, should be extended to Erie, and there 
"break" with the Ohio gauge. This operation, together with a dis- 
position manifested by the people of Erie to still aid the New York 
Central interest in extending their gauge to their town, soon brought 
about a compromise between the two great corporations, by which 
it was agreed that the Buffalo and State Line Railroad (since 
merged in the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Line) should 
be laid with a gauge of four feet and ten inches, should ho located 
through the New York and Erie depot at Dunkirk, and should be 
724 



SILAS SEYMOUR 

S 

operated for all time, as a strictlj neutral road, as between the Nc«- 
York Central and the New York and Erie Railroad interests. 

This arrangement, it was supposed, would create a perfect break 
of gauge both at Buffalo and at Dunkirk: but the agreement has 
since been rendered nearly obsolete by the adoption of the "com- 
promise" wheel, which enables the same car to pass over both the 
four feet eight and a half, and the four feet ten inch gauges. 

The citizens of Erie were very much dissatisfied witli this ar- 
rangement, for the reason that it left them no break of gau<.e 
whatever, and they feared their town would thus become a mere 
way station on the Lake Shore Eailroad; whereas they had been 
fondly anticipating the great benefits that would arise to them from 
a break l)etween the Western and the two Eastern gauges, involving 
an entire change of cars both for freight and passengers. They there^^ 
fore refused to allow the Erie and North East Railroad gau-e to 
be changed from six feet to four feet ten inches, and the celebrat- 
ed " Erie War of gauges" followed, resulting in several disgraceful 
riots, and some bloodshed. But time, and the inexorable laws of 
trade, overcame the difiiculty, and their road eventually fell into 
Ime, with the other lake shore railroads. The benefits derived by 
the Erie Railway Company from this arrangement have been and 
are still very considerable. 

Mr. Seymour laid the last rail upon the Western Division of the 
New York and Erie Railroad, on the ITth of April, 1851, and as- 
sisted at the great celebration of the opening of the road for busi- 
ness, on the 15th of May, following. This celebration was par- 
ticipateiin by the President of the United States (Millard Fill- 
more) and his cabinet, including Daniel Webster, then Secretary 
of State, together with several of the most prominent citizens oV 
the country. 

. The New York and Erie Railroad, at the time of its comple- 
tion, was the first continuous line of railway connecting the At- 
lantic coast with the great Western lakes, in the direction of the 
Pacific Ocean, and therefore constituted the first link of four hun- 
35 725 



a SILAS SEYMOUR. 

drod ami sixty miles in the great ehaiii of railways destined to 
cross the Amorioau coutiueut. 

The t'ol?t>\vina; editorial notice, clipped from the i^maha (^Xi^ 
braska") A,'//y Herald, of January 25, 1S6(>, contains a brief sketch 
of Mr. Seymour's career down to and including the time of his 
connection with the Union Pacific Kailroad : 

" Ool. Silas Seymour, Consulting Engineer of the Union Pacific 
ilailroad, has been spending a few weeks among us, and we i>ro- 
pose to give a few characteristics of himself, and incidents of his 
life. This gentleman is known throughout the country as one 
of our most energetic, thoroughly, educated, largo minded and 
successful engineei"s, as his reconl will show, to which we shall 
refer hereafter. Col. Seymour is about forty-five years of age. 
with no indication of so late a period of life, except that the color 
of his hair has changed somewhat ; of close, compact, well-knit 
frame, symmetricjil form, with a face indicative of great deter- 
mination, and bearing the impi-ess of thought in every lineament. 
Associating, as he has for many years, with the fii-st men of the 
times, in literary, political and military circles, and familiar with 
the best society, ho has somewhat of an aristocratic air, but is 
genial, social, gentlemanly. Ilis great characteristics we should 
say are perfect coolness and self-possession under all circumstances, 
an u!)usual power of concentration of all his powers on whatever 
he undertakes, a tenacity of purpose that never yields, an affec- 
tionate disposition, and a dry, pleasant, and sometimes sparkling 
wit; these valuable qualities with a logical mind, well stored 
with useful information, combine to make him one of the pleas- 
antes* companions imaginable. 

" He couimenced his professional career in connection with the 
New York and Erie Railroad, was engaged in its first surveys, and 
labored constantly in connection with the enterprise from 1S35 
imtil its completion, in 1S5J. Ilis next position was that of 
chief engineer of the Builnlo and New York City Railroad, ex- 
tondiuiT from Ilornellsville to 13uffalo, and of which he was also 
726 



SILAS SEYMOUR. Y 

for some time the general Buperlutendent. Here lie achieved his 
greatost success in designing and constructing the famous Portage 
Bridge across the Genessee River, a structure two hundred and 
thirty-four feet high and eight hundred feet in length. After 
the completion of this monument of his skill, ingenuity and pro- 
fessional judgment, he, together v^ith his associates, contracted 
for the construction and equipment of some of the most important 
roads in the country, embracing the Ohio and Mississippi, Louis- 
ville and Nashville, Maysville and Lexington, Scioto and Hock- 
ing Valley, New York and Boston Air Line, the Ontario, Simcoe 
and Huron of Canada, Western of North Carolina, and Sacramento 
Valley of California. 

"In 1855 he was elected State Engineer and Surveyor General 
of his native State, New York, which responsible office he held 
during 1856-7, and his reports upon the canals and railroads 
of that State are regarded as among the best authorities upon 
these subjects, and have obtained a world-wide reputation for 
accuracy and adaptation. 

"Col. Seymour at about this time established his office in New 
York, as consulting engineer, the duties of which occupied his time 
until the breaking out of the rebellion. He was then offijred the 
position of brigadier-general in the army, but declined the honor, 
and contented himself with aiding his friend. Gen. Sickles, to 
organize the Excelsior Brigade, which for distinguished services 
and valor in the field has not been excelled by any army organiza- 
tion. During this time Col. Seymour recommended to Gen. 
Cameron, then Secretary of War, the construction of independent 
military railroads leading from the National Capital to New York, 
Pittsburg and Cincinnati ; and also the organization of an indi- 
pendent military railroad bureau, to be placed under the direction 
of the best railroad managers of the country. The former sug- 
gestion unfortunately was not carried out, but the latter was 
adopted, and under the able management of Gen. McCallum, 
wlio commenced his railroad experience under Col. Seymour, 
727 



S SILAS SEYMOUR. 

has inoro than justified the wisdom and foresiglit of his sug^os- 
lious. 

" In 18G2, Col. Seymour was appointed Chief Engineer of the 
Washington and Alexandria Railroad, with a Ariew to construct 
a railroad bridge across the Potomac, which inportant work was 
successfully completed in 1864. In 1863, he was appointed by 
the Secretary of the Interior as Consulting Engineer, and after- 
ward Chief Engineer of the "Washington Aqueduct, which office 
he lield for two years, when he resigned on account of a suspen- 
sion of the work for want of an appropriation from Congress, but 
he remained long enough to recommend some important changes, 
which have since been adopted and partially carried out, in the 
plans made by Gen. Meigs, former Chief Engineer, which changes 
were adopted by the Secretary of the interior and subsequently 
approved by Congress. He also recommended in his reports 
important improvements in the National Capitol, which met the 
approval of the Department, and must sooner or later command 
the favorable consideration of Congress. Among these, were the 
improvement of the Washington Canal, and the improvement of 
the Potomac River by the construction of a breakwater, so as to 
bring the navigable channel alongside the water front of the city, 
the construction of fountains in the parks, and the perfection of 
a system of drainage and sewerage of the city. 

"Col. Seymour was appointed Consulting Engineer of the 
Union Pacific Road, commencing at Omaha, Nebraska Ter., in 
1864, but owing to other engagements was not able to give that 
work but a portion of Ms time until the summer of 1865. lie is 
now devoting his best talents to this gigantic work, the great 
national work of the age, and we hope his life may be spared 
till its successful completion. 

" As a thoroughly educated, successful and practical engineer, 

it may be said that Col. Seymour has no superior, and perhaps 

not a rival, in this country. If he has made professional mistakes, 

tliey have yet to be discovered, and if the numerous works and 

728 



SILAS SEYMOUK 9 

structures designed or constructed by liim are defective, either 
in adaptation or permanency, time has not yet developed the 
fact. His engagement by the managers of the Union Pacific 
Eailroad is a standing evidence of the sagacity and forethought 
witli which that great work is being constructed, and we hope and 
trust that the name of Col. Seymour will go down in history in con- 
nection with others engaged in the great work, as the successful 
engineer of this most wonderful conception of the nineteenth 
century." 

At the time of undertaking the construction of the Sacramento 
Valley Railroad of California, Mr. Seymour very correctly as- 
sumed that it would eventually become the western link in the 
chain of railroads that must sooner or later connect the tide 
waters of the Pacific with those of the Atlantic Ocean. And 
Mr. T. D. Judah, the engineer whom he sent out to take charge 
of that work, was instructed to examine the country up the 
western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with a view 
of ultimately extending the road eastward. These explorations 
resulted in the adoption of the present route for the Central 
Pacific Eailroad. 

Colonel Seymour's nomination and election, in 1855, to the posi- 
tion of State Engineer and Surveyor of the State of New York 
was a recognition by the people of his standing as a civil engineer. 
This is the only political position he has ever held, his experience 
teaching him that political honors were a poor recompense for 
the time spent in the public service, to the neglect of his profes- 
sional and business interests. 

At the time of his first connection, in the winter of 1863-4, 
with the Union Pacific Railroad — that great enterprise, the con- 
ception and ultimate completion of which were the legitimate 
results of the construction of that first great line from the sea- 
board to the lakes, nearly twenty-five years before, and with 
whose whole history Mr. Seymour had been so closely identi- 
fied, — very little had been done in the way of locating the line 
729 



10 SILAS SEYMOUR. 

ol' the i-oad, more thau that the eastern terininu3, or initial point 
had been fixed by the President of the United States at Omaha 
Nebraska, and a few engineering parties had been engaged in 
surveying i>ortions of the country to tlie west of that town. 
As soon after his appointment as Consulting Engineer as his 
engagements would permit, he visited and examined the pro- 
jected lines, and from that time until its completion, was 
occupied almost entirely wltli his duties in connection with the 
road. 

These duties were not generally of an executive character, but 
they were always arduous and responsible. Much of his time 
was spent in the office of the company at New York (to which 
city he had then removed from Washington, D. C), pi-eparing 
maps, profiles, plans, estimates, reports, etc., and in general con- 
sultation with the officers of the company. He made frequent 
visits to the line of the road, in company with Mr. T. 0. Durant, 
the Vice-President and General Manager, and others concerned 
in the work, and generally gave his personal attention to changes 
of route which were adopted by the company upon his recom- 
uioudation. 

These duties were not unattended with personal danger, for 
the country was traversed by hostile Indians in all directions. 
He made it a point to always explore the route sufficiently in 
advance of the construction of the road to enable him to give 
an intelligent opinion as to the comparative merits of conflicting 
lines, and in these explorations he was obliged to have an escort 
with him for protection. During one of these reconnoissances, 
over the Black Hills, west of Cheyenne, while accompanied by 
one of the Division Engineers, and an escort of Pawnee warriors, 
he was threatened by an attack from a large force of hostile 
Sioux. The Pawnees not only promptly repulsed the Sioux, 
driving them back into the mountains, but continued the chase 
until the following day, leaving the engineers entirely unpro- 
tected. 

730 



SILAS SKYMOUR. 1) 

Mr. Seymour designed the high bridge over Dale Creek 
Canon, near the summit of the Black Hill range of the Eocky 
Mountains. This bridge is one hundred and twenty-s^ven feet 
liigh, and eight hundred feet long, and stands at an elevation 
of about eight thousand feet above the sea. It is by far the 
most imposing mechanical structure upon the road, and resembles 
in some respects the famous Portage Bridge, which he had con- 
structed several years previously, across the Genesee River, upon 
the Buffalo branch of the Erie Railway. 

During the last year of the construction of the Union Pacific 
Railroad, he spent the greater portion of his time upon the line 
of the road in Utah, where the principal portion of the work 
was being done by the Mormons, under the general direction 
of their President, Brigham Young. At this time a gigantic 
strife was being waged between the Union Pacific and the Cen- 
tral Pacific Companies, as to which should first reach the Great 
Salt Lake Valley with its railroad. Mr. Seymour was here oi 
great service in executing the orders and plans of Mr. Duranfc 
with reference to the rapid extension of the Union Pacific line 
westward, although he repeatedly and earnestly urged upon the 
representatives of both companies the expediency and importance 
of coming to an early and amicable agreement as to the meeting 
point of the two roads. Congress, however, interfered at the last 
moment, and fixed the point of junction at the summit of Pro- 
montory Point, a distance of one thousand and eighty-seven miles 
from Omaha, and of six hundred and ninety miles from Sacra- 
mento. 

The last rail, connecting the two roads, was laid on the 10th 
day of May, 18GD, with appropriate ceremonies, at which Mr. 
Seymour, with other principal officers of bath companies, had 
the honor of assisting. 

Nearly six hundred miles of the Union Pacific Railroad, lying 
directly through the heart of the Rocky Mountains, were com- 
pleted during the last year of its construction ; and the entire 
731 



J2 SILAS SEYMOUR. 

dir^tanco of nearly eleven hundred miles was constructed in a 
period of four years — an achievement unparalleled in the history 
of railroad construction. 

Mr. Thomas C. Durant, to wliose energy and skill the country 
is mainly indebted for this great national work, in one of hia 
published reports to the company, pays the following tribute 
to the subject of this sketch, on account of his services in con- 
nection therewitb : — 

" I am also indebted to Colonel Silas Seymour, the Consulting 
Engineer, for valuable suggestions and advice, which his long 
and varied experience in the construction and management of 
railroads, and other works of internal improvement, has rendered 
him so competent to give." 

Mr. Seymour may therefore very justly claim the honor of 
having been more thoroughly identified than any other living en- 
gineer, with the construction of both the initial and terminal 
links of the great chain of railways, more than three thousand 
miles in length, which now spans the American Continent from 
ocean to ocean. 

During the winter of 18G7-8, under an appointment from the 
Secretary of the Interior, made by autliority of a joint resolution 
of Congress, he prepared an elaborate report, accompanied by 
maps, drawings, estimates, etc., upon the subject of improving 
the channel of, and bridging the Potomac liivcr, in the vicinity 
of "Washington, D. C. 

The selection by the General Government, from among the 
engineers of the country, of Mr. Seymour, in preference to an 
officer of the regular army corps, for this work, as well as his 
previous appointment on the "Washington Aqueduct, were each 
of them high professional compliments. 

The most important works with which he has been connected 

as Consulting Engineer, since the completion of the Union Pacific 

Kailroad, are the Adirondack Company's Railroad, which is also 

being constructed by Mr. T. C. Durant, extending through the 

7J2 



3ILAS SEYMOUR. -„ 



groHt wilderness of Northern New York, from Saratoga Springs 
o Ogdensburgh, on the St. Lawrence River, a distance of nearly 
two hundred miles; and the North Shore Kailwayof Canada ex- 
tending from Montreal to Quebec. ' ' 

Mr. Seymour was married on the 23d of December, 1840 to 
Deha, second daughter of the late Hon. George A. French', of 
Dunkirk, Chautauqua County, New York. They now reside in 
New York City and have five children living-Florence, Georc^e F 
James M., Jeanie, and Silas, Jr. '^ '' 

733 




^^ ^^ /^.e^,^.^^ 




CHARLES P. HERRICK. 

'HAIILES P. IIEKRICK was born in the town of Wil- 
ton, New Hampshire, on the 27th day of April, in the 
year 1818, and is the fourth child of Edward Herrick and 
Ann Barrett Herrick. He was married in 1841 to Miss 
Caroline M. Baker, of Vermont, has two children, a son and daughter. 

His grandfather was an officer in the Kevolutionary war. He was 
absent on the ever memorable day of t^je battle of Banker Hill, he 
having been sent to Andover on the 1.5th or 16th day of June, lllo, 
for vinegar for the troops. His wife's maiden name was Holt, a 
descendant of the Holts of England. 

The father of the subject of this sketch was bom in 1785, and is 
still living. He served iu the war of 1812. His business, like his 
father, was a mill-wright and builder, carpentry being his specialty. 
His wife was born in 1790, and died in 1824, and left a family of 
five children, Charles P. Herrick being the foui-th child, and only six 
years old at the time of her death. 

The Ilerricks are of Danish and English descent. The traditions 
of this family claim their descent from Ericke, a Danish chief who 
invaded Britain during the reign of Alfred, and having been van- 
quished by that prince, was compelled, with his followers, to repeo 
pie the wasted districts of East Anglia, the government of which h') 
held as a fief of the English crown. — HbUnshefls CTtronicler, sixth- 
book. 

The Norman invasion, found this name represented by Eric, the 
Forester, who resided in Leicestershire, and possessed extensive do- 
main, along the sources of the Severn, and on the border of "Wales. 

Eric raised an army to repel the invader ; and in the subserjuent 
73.5 



2 CHARLES P. HEREIOK. 

efforts of tlie English earls and princes to dispossess the Normans 
of their recent conquest, and to drive them out of the country, he 
bore a prominent and conspicuous jiart. But he shared also, in the 
unfortunate issue of all these patriotic efforts. Ilis followers and 
aliens, here stripped of their estate, and being no longer in a condi- 
tion formidable to the government, was taken into favor by Sir Wil- 
liam, entrusted with important offices about his person, and in com- 
mand of his armies. In his old age, retired to Leicestershire where 
he closed a stormy and eventful life as became the re]>rescntative of 
an ancient and distinguished race. 

" "With a hasty glance at our earliest family remembrances, reniute 
and obscure as they may be, we proceed to deduce the pedigree of 
the English aud American races through the branch of the posterity 
of Eric, the Forester, which i^ still respectably known in England, and 
from, whence we derive our lineage." — Ilerriclcs Genealogy. 

" "We perceive something like a progressive transmission from the 
original Scandinavian Ericke, Eric, down to the settled and perma- 
nent English Heyrick and Herrick of the seventeenth century. The 
earliest English forms were occasional variations of the final letter, 
for substitution of I instead of E in the initial. In the twelfth cen- 
turv the sons of John of Leicestershire fixed the orthography of the 
iiMine Ilornck, which has remained pornKinent and unchanged to thic 
tiay. 

" In 911 other of the Danes assembled in Staffordshire, near Tot- 
tenhall, fought \C^ith the English— and there \\-as great slaughter on 
both sides — the Danes were overcome, and afterwards at Woden- 
fields ; then King Edward put the Danes to flight also at Northum- 
berland. So the Danes gladly continued to rest in peace and quiet- 

" Eric, son of Harold Gormson, Idng of Denmark, was about to 
engage in new wars, and to allure other Danes to join him against 
the English nation and utterly subdue them. King Edward hearing 
tliis proposal, to enter his country with an army, which he did, cruel- 
ly wasted and spoiled the same. 

"Eric of Northumberland, who was sometime governor of the 
73G 



OnAKLE! 



same. 



e, may have been mistaken for 'Erickof East Ano-lia ' Eric 
Blcdox, son of Harold Ilarfagni, king of Norway. His story 'is told 
by Thiery. 'Ethelstane boasted in his charters of having subdued 
every people foreign to the Saxon race inhabiting the island of Great 
Britain.' 

"To the Anglo-Danes of Northmiiberland, he gave a Norwegian 
for their governor, (this was Eric, son of Harold, an old pirate, who 
turned Christian to obtain the Government,) in the year of our Lord 
937. On the day of his baptism he swore to defend Northumber- 
land from the Pagans and pirates ; and from being a sea-king, he be- 
came king of a province. 

" But this peaceful reign becoming irksome to him, he betook him- 
self to his ships. After an al)sence of several years, he returned - 
we have indisputable proofs of his Iiaving visited America during 
that time, nearly five hundred years before the discovery of Ameri- 
ca by Columbus. 

" The first discoverer was Biarne, a young Icelander, in 986 On 
his return, he reported to Lief, the son of Eric the Bed, a bold and 
enteri^nsmg young chief, who made an expedition to the newly dis- 
covered region. He sailed with thirty-five men, followed the direc- 
tion pointed out by Biarne, and arrived in safety on the shores of the 
^ew World. It was rude and rocky, the mountains covered with 
snow and ice. He named it Helluland, or the land of rocks He 
next came to a flat region covered with forests which lie called ' Marsh- 
land,' or the woody \^r,^--UghU and Shadow, rf American Uu- 
tory. 

"In 1121 Bishop Eric, of Greenland, embarked on a missionary 
voyage to Finland, the result of which is not known. Vinland the 
name given by Eric, the second discoverer, for the quantity of g;apes 
found m the country. ' 

" He returned to visit the Northumbrian, who gave him a welcome, 
and appointed him their chief without the consent of the Saxon King 
Edward. Edward attacked them, forced them to abandon Eric, who 
in turn attacked them with five Corsair chiefs from Denmark, the' 

^z1 



II KKUICK, 



Orkneys and tbo TTebrides. He lell in the lii-st battle, a death 
glorious to a Seaudiuavian. His praises were sung by all the scalds 
and bards of the north. 

" The family of Erie has produced many eminent men, is still rep- 
resented by two respectable branches. The Ilcrricks of Leicester, 
and the llerricks of Beau Manor, of both tlu-se branches, are of dis- 
tinct pedijijrees, and many curious historic anecdotes are given in the 
history of Leicestei-shire."— ^t'ort's Life of Swift. 

"John, of Leicestershire resided there from 1559 to 1572. Nich- 
olas, the second son, was a goldsmith, banker and merchant in Lon- 
don, who established his younger brother, "William, in high credit 
[in] and trust at the court of Queen Elizabeth. 

" Of his sons Thomas and "William, little is known, save that 
Thomas was the reputed ancestor of Thomas Herrick of Market 
ILu-borough, and author of a volume of poems, published in 1691, 
and of several high-s]Mced sermons, in which the rebels, against King 
James the Second, arc severely handled. Nicholas, the third son, 
was a merchant in London, living in London in 1667, on the occasion 
of the decease of his son Nicholas, who was a merchant iu the Levant, 
and an extensive and intelligent traveler in Syria, Egypt and Pales- 
tine. 

"Eobert was the most eloquent clergyman of his age — was Yicar 
of Dean Prior, in Devonshire. He was noted as the author of ' Hes- 
perides,' a work of gre;it and singular merit. A writer in the ' Ee- 
trospective Review,' says : ' "Wc do not hesitate to pronounce him 
the best of English Lyric Poets.' Another critic thus writes : ' He is 
at all times, and in every sense, an English poet ; English scenery and 
English manners are his constant themes.' 

" The father of Eobert Herrick died in 1G92, while his family were 
in infancy ; he left them iu moderate circumstances. Fortunately, 
for Robert, he early attracted the notice of his uncle. Sir "William, 
who educated him, and established him in business. 

John Herrick, the fourth son of John Herrick of Leicester, was 
many yeare an alderman of that borough, and died 1613, leaving a 
73S 



son and dau^^.ter. This i. the only record of Lis history and 



1)09. 



terity. We think a careful inqniiy among the posterity of John of 
Leicester, would satisfy the antiquarians for their John of Shippool 
and James of Southampton. ' 

Sir \Villiam Herrick ^as a successful courtier and politician from 
• lo<o, when he first atta.=hed himself to the court of Queen Eliza- 
beth by whom he was commissioned on an important embassy to 
he Ottoman Porte ; and, as a reward for Lis success, was appointed 
to a lucrative situation in the exchequer, which he held throu^.h her 
re.g„ and the reign of James. He purchased the estate of the un- 
fortunate Eari of Essex, at Beau Manor Park, in the Parish of 
Loughborough and County of Leicester, which is still in the po.sseasion 
of bs descendants in the direct line, and La,, been, for the last two 
hundred and fifty years, the headquarters of our race 

Henry, the fiflh son of Sir William Herrick, whon. we claim to 
have been our Henry of Salem, 1629, was born at Loan ^lanor, in 
1004. He was named by comn.and of the unfortunate Prince Hen- 
^, eldest son of James L We have positive proof that no other 
Henry ,s found in English history or English pedig,-ee of his time 
He IS spoken of as residing abroad in 16.53, and America as the 
place of bis residence. 

Letters from his brother Kicholas to his brother John, July 16.53 
The Identity of the coat of arms at Salem and Beverly with that 
of the Leicestershire family, and especially the crest with that of Sii 
W.lliam was one of the original grantees. The secession of one 
branch of the I^icestershire family from the Established Church 
t IS known aU the other branches were devoted to their Church and 
King and that Henry of Salem was a Puritan, and cared little for 
the Church and less for the King. We, therefore, recognize Henry 
of Beau Manor as our Anglo-American ancestor. 

John Morris, of Shrewsbury, Wales, says : " Henry Herrick settled 
on Cape Ann side of Bass Eiver, now Beveriy. He purchased sev- 
eral farms, where he settled his sons Zachariah, Ephraim, Jo.seph 
and John, where he acquired a large fortnne-all of which l.a^e' 
739 



6 CHART, KSl'.HERRICK. 

passed into other hands save one small farm. The posterity of Hen- 
ry of Salem liave disappeared from the land of their father, and are 
widely dispersed over the Eastern, Western, and Northern States of 
the Union, and are scarcely remembered in their ancient plantations." 

Henry Herrick was a husbandman in easy circumstances. He was 
a very good man ; was a dissenter from the Established Church. He 
and his wife Editha were among the thirty who founded the first 
cliurch in Salem in 1629 ; and, on the organization of a new church 
on the Ryal Side, 1669, they, with their sons and sons' wives, were 
first among the founders of the first church in Beverly, also. 

At a later period, but still early for that enterprise, 1711-14, Jo- 
soph Herrick, Sr., and sons, who dwelt in that territory, were active 
and efficient members of the new parish called "Salem and Beverly 
Precinct," and adopted a platform or covenant more libi'ial than 
known before, which still remains, without the alteration of a word 
or letter. It was the foundation of a numerous church and society. 

The sons of Henry Heriick were all farmers, with the exception 
of Joseph, who acquired a large property ; more than he could derive 
from agricidture, at that time, with care of a large family. He was 
absent many years in the British West India Islands. We have proofs 
of his having been Governor of one of the Islands. He was styled 
Gt)vernor on the church i-eeords, and on the records of Probate 
Court — and on all dates of the time. Furthermore, he visited Eng- 
land ; when at Liverpool, met his cousin Gershom, the heir of the 
Iri4i family, who tried to induce him to remove his family to Ire- 
land, but he abandoned his design on his ]-eturn to America. 

George Herrick came from England to Salem, 1685 ; was appointed 
Mar.-hal of the Colony of Essex, and Deputy -Sheriff of the County 
of E-:sex, which office he held to the time of his death, 1695. 

George Herrick was the heir to an estate in England ; which, at 
the time of his death, was possessed hy two maiden ladies. He died 
young : leaving an infant family in moderate circumstances. They 
were not able to prosecute the ease to a successful result; there- 
fore it was lost to their family and kindred. 
740 



H EEEICK. 



James Herrick, of Soutliampton, Long Island, New York, was also 
an emigi-ant from England some time prior to 1657, wlien his name 
is lirst found in the records of that town. Tradition claims the Con- 
necticut Patriarch (without name), and John of Shippool, Ireland, 
and our own Heurj of Salem as brothers. 

" Henry must have belonged to a generation prior to that of 
James and John. John went to Ireland an ensign in Cromwell's 
army, in 1647. James came to America in 1650. James died in 
1687, and John in 1689. John made his brother James his heir on 
failure of his own issue. No other James Herrick is found in Eng- 
land or America answering to the time. 

We have given, in- a connected chain, the branches of tlie English 
and American families. We have the proofs that Henry of Beau 
Manor was our Henry of Salem ; also, that there is no reason to ques- 
tion the fraternity of John of Shippool and James of Southampton. 
They were, most undoubtedly, the grandsons or great grandsons 
of Nicholas of London. Through his sons, Thomas and William, 
or from John of Leicester, John Fanes recorded there was a William' 
Herrick in this country concerned in a land purchase on Long Island 
in 1639-40. The conclusion is, it was William, son of Nicholas, and 
father of James and John. This is not impossible, as there were 
persons of our name at Oyster Bay, on the site of the first English 
plantation on Long Island, where the first settlers were ejected by 
the Dutch of Manhattan in 1640 ; and, if WiUiam Herrick was con- 
cerned in that enterprise, he probably remained on the original lo- 
cation, as he is not found at Southampton, nor any other person of 
the name until 1687, where James is first recognized there. 
^ We have given, briefly, the history of the Herrick family in A.ner- 
ica and their several places of residence in the earUer history of the 
settlement of America ; their influence in private and public life : 
their love of religion-of the right and true; their steriing worth as 
became the descendants of a noble race. We have been aided bv 
the genealogy of the family published in 1845, or to dates and mem 
oranda. 

741 



H C ir A E L E 8 P . II E K B I K . 

We imw add a link to the eliain in the person of Ciiarles P. Hor- 
rick, the fonnder of the United States Conservatorj of Music. Ilis 
early education was limited — was what at that time could be obtained 
at the country schools. At the age of seventeen, he was apprenticed 
to a builder to learn the mason's trade. The first winter of his ap- 
prenticeship, he attended the academy at Rillerica. The two fol- 
lowing winter.*, he attended the grammar school, in Lowell, where 
he learned his trade. He gave all his spare time to music while at 
school, but has never given his whole time to tlie study of music, 
of which he is, and ever has been passionately fond ; the violin, the 
king of instruments, being his favorite, although he plays on many 
othei-s. 

He has been considered by musicians who know him well, to be 
one of the most correct and conscientious critics among amateur 
musicians. His mind for many years has been agitated on the sub- 
ject of National Music Schools, and culminated last winter in a set 
of plans for a building (with the assistance of an architect he had 
employed), that are pronounced to be far superior to any yet de- 
vised, either in this or any other country. 

He believes that music is one of the arts that has been sadly neg- 
lected by the people in this country. He believes that, as we have 
the best model for a government, we should feel a pride in having 
the best model school for the cultivation of that element in our na- 
tures, that makes us better citizens ; as well expressed by the Bard 
of Avon, 

"The man that hath no music in himself, 
Nor is not movod with tlie concord of sweet sounds ; 
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; \ 

The motions of his spirit are dull as night, 
And his affections dark as Erebus; 
Let no such man be trusted." 

He believes that music has such a refining influence upon the 
mind of man, that he would be a better citizen and a better politi- 
cian ; he thinks, although we have the best model of a government, 
742 



O H A R I, K s p . n i: E R I C K . 9 

yet it is liable to iibiiscs ; believes tlie real and true benefactors of 
the race live in the future, and not in the past, and that the world i„ 
growing better as it grows older. 

The Conservatory of Music is to be built by vuhnitary subscrip- 
tions. Already generous sums have been pledged l)y prominent 
gentlemen and ladies of Boston, New York, and other cities. Sni.ili 
donations are thankfully received as well as larger sums ; the build- 
ing will cost one million of dollars; and as we are a people of forty 
millions, it is self-evident the amount would be quickly raised ; at a 
glance we see how little from each individual would make up the 
sum required. lie thinks it would be much better for us as a na- 
tion to educate our young people in all the arts and sciences in our 
own country. Not that he would deter them from traveling in 
other lands, but let them perfect their education before going 
abroad, that they be better qualified to enjoy arts and sciences, 
music and song, painting and sculpture; to live, in short, in the 
dead past, and living present, in a refined and cultivated manner. 

The proposed Conservatory of Music is to be entirely unseetarian — 
is not to be sectional, but national. He has given it the name of the 
" United States Conservatory of Music," hoping it will attract 
within its walls the sons and daughters of every State in the Union 
as well as students from other lands, as he intends to employ the 
best musical talent in Europe and America, on all instruments that 
are taught in the civilized world. 

The building will be erected on a lot of land bounded by four 
streets, making an entii'e square about four hundred feet long by two 
hundred and fifty feet wide, making a hundred thousand square feet 
of land. It will be 330 feet long, 220 feet wide, with a tower oi 
the principal end, where the main entrance will be. There will b.S 
eight entrances, so that, in case of alarm, it may be cleared without 
delay or confusion. The principal hall will seat six thousand people, 
with a stage capacity of two thousand singers, and an oi'cliestra of 
two hundred performers. 

There will be two halls that will seat 1,500 people, and three hall? 
743 



10 CHARLES r. nEEKIOK. 

for 1,000 ; eight lialls to seat from 400 to COO, to be used for mnsiea, 
lectures; thirty-two rooms for class or private iiistructioa ; they will 
1)0 twenty foot square ; seven saloons for cloak and coat rooms. The 
snnill halls are so arranged that a performance can go on in the large 
hall without any connection with the small halls, or class-rooms. 
Thoiv is a large hall for a gymnasium, that can be used for a ban- 
quoting hall, which will hold 0,000 people. The lighting, heating- 
aiid ventilation, will be upon the most approved models. 

The clock tower will be octagon in shape (at least where the clock 
faces are,) so as to give eight dials, symbolical of the octave in the 
scale of music. The machinery whch propels the clock in the tower 
will also be connected with dials in the class-rooms, halls, and corri- 
doi-s, so that the precise time will be indicated on every dial through- 
out the building. 

AYe have given only the principal features of this gigantic build- 
ing. See the drawings and pamphlets at the principal music stores 
in large cities; some will be found in all the towns of the United 
StAtes. They may be seen at 41 Park Row, (Times Building,) Xew 
York. 

The Consei'vatory is to be built by the people and for the people. 
One of the aims of the founder is to give the best music that will 
come within the reach of the masses. If music make people better, 
it should not be contined to any one class, but made available to the 
entii*e people of the nation. 

He intends to give pei*sonal attention to the erection of the Con- 
servatory ; and his experience of thirty-six years gives him quali- 
fications, that persons who have given their entire time to music, 
do not possess. He has erected a large number of elegant resi- 
dences and other prominent buildings in Boston, and is still en- 
gaged on some of the most expensive and elegant residences, and 
churches in the city. It is said his work will stand the tests of 
storms, tempests and time. 

Fo« ler says of him : '' He has an active brain, a clear mind, a cool 
head ;" says, that the leading qualities of his mind are, " sense of char- 
744 



OHAELES P. HEKEICK. 11 

acter and elevation of feeling; desire to Improve and get up in the 
world, firmness and stability of purpose, and great perseverance ; 
sense of justice, and desire to do right: feeling of moral obligation, 
benevolence and kindness towards others ; caution and forethougiit, 
regard for consequences; practical talent, and desire for positive 
knowledge ; joined with a fair degree of social and domcbtic feel- 
ing; valuing property only for Its uses and convenience; syste- 
matic and does his work well; not very enthusiastic nor visionary ; 
well qualified for business of a practical nature ; would do well in 
any of tlie natural sciences." 

In personal appearance, Mr. Herrick is of medium height, of fair 
complexion, sandy hair, compac-tly built, has the quiet bearing of a 
well bred gentleman, in conversation slow of speech, but his lau- 
gnage is clear and convincing; at times terse and sententious ; has 
great executive ability ; is very orderly in the arrangement of the 
daily routine of business matters ; the men in his employ love and 
obey him. He has large humanity ; believes " every human heart is 
human," and treats all he comes in contact with on that high principle. 

He possesses, in an eminent degree, many of the characteristics of 
his ancestors. Many of them were marked men, and were men of 
great influence in their time— as sea-kings, and kings of provinces, 
discoverers of continents, warriors, statesmen, courtiers, politicians, 
poets, priests, and philosophers, settlers of new provinces, founders 
of churches, agriculturists, and other professions and crafts, too nu- 
merous to mention. From a careful perusal of their lives, we no- 
tice one of their leading characteristics was perseverance. They 
generally accomplished whatever they engaged in, because they pos- 
sessed the noblest trait of success, namely, patience. Thep^rominent 
traits of Mr. Herrick's character are perseverance and indomitable 
energy, which will accomplish almost anything earthly, if persevered 
in. He is the architect of his own fortune. By carefiil attention to 
busineas he has obtained a fair competency, so that he can indulge 
in the comforts and elegancies of a cultivated mind, and of a refined 
and correct taste. 

745 



12 OHABLES P. HEREIOK. 

He Iiopcs to have the Conservatory of Music in working order — to 
dedicate it to music and song — on the Ccntennary Annivereary of 
our country aa a free and independent nation, in 1876. Those wlio 
know the man believe it will be accomplished. He is ready now 
o receive contributions in money, musical instruments, statuary, 
nd paintings, or in whatever will adorn and beautify the halls of 
the most magnificent building of the kind ever dedicated to music, 
poetry and song. 

746 





///7 



,^ )/( J/rY./r r\ 



GEXERAL EDWARD M. MaCOJK. 



Wf< ENERAL EDWARD M. McCOOK was born at Steu- 
v^^ benville, Ohio, in June, 1834, and was e,duc.. tixl there. 
>^-»i'^ His ancestors were Scotch-Irish; his father and his brothers 
were born in Pennsylvania. In 1856 he went to Minnesota, as 
private Secretary to Governor Medary, who was ai)pointed Gover- 
nor of the territory under the Buchanan administration. When the 
Piite's Peak excitement began, after the discovery of gold in that 
portion of the Country, General McCook left Minnesota, and crossed 
the plains, and settled in the mining region ; he was at first engaged 
in mining ; this was in 1859 ; he afterwards practised law with suc- 
cess there ; all that portion of the country which was afterwards or- 
ganized as the territory of Colorado was then Arapahoe County, 
Kansas. In the winter of 1860 he was elected to the Kansas Legis- 
lature, by 1,800 majority over two competitors, this being the last 
Temtorial Legislature. At that time Arapahoe County had a large 
population, and General McCook probably represented a constituency 
larger than the rest of the territory of Kansas. He was a good 
debater, and took an active part in all the proceedings, and none of 
the interests of his section of the territory were allowed to suffer. 
The boundaries of Kansas were defined during this session, and she 
was admitted as a State. This left General McCook's constituency 
with no political organization. He went to Washington to secure 
for it some territorial organization, and the former county of Ara- 
pahoe became the territory of Colorado. While on his return ho 
heard that Fort Sumter had been fired upon ; he immediately 
747 



jvtunuHl to Wiushiugton, onlistod in the nnny, and afterwards ro- 
ooivoil a commission as Second Lieutenant of the Fii-st ReguUvi 
Cavalry. Whei\ Indisiiia organized her Vohiuteer Regiment Gov- 
ernor Morton applioil to the War Department for otlicers, and Licu- 
ttMiant MeCook was sent from the scliool of instruetion to Indianapolis, 
and ixwivod a commission as Major of the Second Indiana Cavalry, 
after the battle of Shiloh he was promoted to the Colonelcy of the 
rt^giment, and placed in command of the first brigade of Cavalry, 
organized under General Buell. Upon the thorough oi-ganization oi 
the Cavalry he was assigned to the Command of the liret division, 
and took part in nearly all the ongagcuionts of the Army of the Ohi'>, 
afterwards the Army of the CumlxMland. His division wj\s always 
conspicuous for its discipline and etHciency, and ivndored as olYectivo 
service as any cavalry division of the army. 

lu the winter of 18(33-4 the division was oixlercd from Alalvima 
into Ei»st Tennessee, to protect the communications of the army 
then occupying Knoxville. They crosseil the mountains in mid- winter, 
and in the latter part of December fought Martin's rebel corps and 
destroyed it, capturing all his artillery and about one-thiul of liis 
command ; and then recri^sseil the mountains in time to take part 
in the Atlanta Campaign. He was with General Sherman through 
the whole of that camjv\igu ; and after the capture of Marietta wjis 
oixieanl by General Sherman across the Chattahoochee, in the rcjir 
of the reM lines around Atlanta, to cut their communications. 
This was aeci^mplisluHl, together with the destruction of nearly the 
whole ivIk>1 commissj^ry and quarter-master trains, which were captured 
and burneti at Fayetteville, Geoi^ia. When returning from this 
oxjHHlition McCook found himself confronteii with a large foixjo of the 
enemy's cavaliy and two divisions of infantry, posteti near Nixman, 
Gei>rgia. After lighting all day he led a charge thivugh the rebel line, 
cut his way out, and swam the Chattahoix-hee river, and arrived safely 
in camp with the main army near Marietta. 

Gcuenil Sherman, in his report of that campugn, complimented 
748 



General McCook very highly, for tlio iiiaiiiK'r in wliich lir; IukI cIIh- 
charged the duties that were assigned liini, and lor the manner in 
which he extricated his troops from the superior force of the enemy 
which surrounded him. He was brevetted a Major General for 
this service. When General Sherra8,n started on his " marcli to the 
sea," General McCook commanded the first division of Wilson's 
corps, which moved to the right of Sherman's colunm, captuiing 
Selma, Montgomery, Columbus and Macon. 

After Lee's surrender General McCook was sent South to receive 
the surrender of the rebel troops in Georgia and Florida. At the close 
of the war he resigned his commission in the regular and voluntee;- 
service, and was aijpointed United States Minister Resident to the 
Sandwich Islands. He went to the Sandwich Islands with spjecial in- 
structions from the Secretary of State to negotiate a treaty of commer- 
cial reciprocity, and also, if possible, to open negotiations for the ac- 
quisition of the Islands. He was successful in carrying out the first 
part of his instructions, to the satisfaction of the President and Secre- 
tary of State. The treaty which was negotiated was not ratified by the 
Senate. During his official tenure in the Islands he re-established 
American influence there. At the time of his resignation nearly the 
whole of the ministry, the court, and the other official positions in 
the kingdom were filled by Americans. He left the Islands with the 
respect of his countrymen, and the King, and their regret that he 
should have deemed it necessary to sever his official relations with 
that country, which holds a position towards our Pacific States even 
more important than Cuba does-towards the Atlantic States. 

After the inauguration of President Grant, he was ofiered, and 
accepted, the position of Governor of Colorado. In his first message 
to the Legislature occur these words, being the first distinct recom- 
mendation upon the subject by an executive officer in the country: 

" Before dismissing the subject of franchise, I desire to call your 
attention to one question connected with it, which I deem of suffi- 
cient importance to need some consideration at your hands, Iiefore 
749 



i EDWAKP M. McCOOK. 

the close of the session. Our civilizition has recognized woman's 
eiiuaUty with mm in all respscts,. save one — that of suffrage. It 
has been said that no great reform was ever made, without passing 
through throe stages, ridicule, argum3nt, adoption. It rests with 
you to say whether Colorado will accept this reform in its first stag3, 
or, as her sister territory, Wyoming, has done, in tlie last; whsther 
she will be a leader in the movement, or follow; for the logic of a 
progressive civilization leads inevitably to the result of universal 
suffrage." 

Gfovernor McCook has labored assiduously for the development 
and progress of the Territory; and under his administration it has 
increased largely, both in wealth and population. His messages, 
and all public addresses which he has delivered in relation to 
the resources of the country, have been copied extensively, not only 
in the papers of the Eastern States, but in many of the English pa- 
pers. His administration of Indian affairs has been so efficient that 
the Territory enjoys peace such as it has not had for ten years. 

In the memorial services in honor of Major Gen'l George H. 
Thomas, held at the U. S. House of Representatives in accordance 
with a joint resolution of Congress — Gen'l McCook was selected by 
the committee of arrangements to prepare and present the resolu- 
tions. The President, Cabinet, Judges of the Supreme Court, 
members of the Diplomatic Corps and members of both houses of 
Congress were all present to do honor to the great dead. Gen'l 
McCook, on presenting the resolutions, said : 

"Mr. Chairman: I have been charged by the Committee with the 
duty of presenting for your consideration these resolutions of respect 
f )r the memory of our late beloved friend and commander. 

" It becomes a most difficult task to express in fitting terms our 
respect for the great dead, when a nation of maurners stands by to 
listen. 

" As in life Gen'l Thomas was so good and pure as to escape the 
criticism to which other public men are generally subjected, so ia 
750 



EDWARD M. MoCOOK. 5 

death he is for beyond and above all words of ordinary euloc^v The 
most appropriate eulogy he could have is the presence her/to-ni..ht 
of so many of theold soldiers of the army, who served under him and 
of his comrade commanders, and also of those Representatives of the- 
people of the United States, who conferred upon him his well-earned 
rank and honors, all sorrowfully gathered together to pay to his 
memory a last tribute of reverence and respect. 

" George H. Thomas in life had no enemies save the enemies of 
his country; his heart was a fountain of goodness, and gentleness 
ovei-flowmg towards all except the foes of his flag ; and ao-ainst' 
them his arm was always raised resistlessly, and relentlessly "but I 
leave it for others who knew more of his daily life and eminent 
public services than I, to sketch liis career, and do justice to 'ms 
greatness. He has gone ! and those who knew and loved him as I 
did, can only fill the void in their hearts with memories of his many 
virtues, which shall blossom forever, and bear the fragrance of his 
noble deeds to our children, and our children's children. 

" He closed his earthly life in a new land, and to him a new home 
yet be had already won the frendship of all the people there by his 
simple manners, and modest goodness ; and it seemed but meet that 
a life so great in achievement, so boundless in benevolence, and so 
perfect in its symmetry, should close amid the grand and solemn 
mountains of the Pac fie ; and a soul so pure and free from .^uile 
should wing it its flight through the glories of the ' Golden Gate ' 
to eternal life beyond." ' 

In a speech made in Denver, in July, 18B, Gov. McCook took 
advanced ground on the Cuban Question, etc., etc. He said when 
called out by some question relating to Cuba, addressed to him by a 
member of the Fenian Organization: "What Ireland and the 
Fenians attempted two years ago, Cuba is attempting now • Cuba is 
to-day fightin,^ the battle of Republicanism against Imperialism 
The reconiuest of Cuba will be to renew in greater strength, a foot- 
hold for the population of monarchial ideas on this continent 
751 



6 EDWARD M. MoCOOK. 

Shame ! Shame ! that we, as a people, should look on quietly and see 
this little island, wounded to the heart, bravely struggling for 
liberty and republicanism, while we hide our sympathies in the shroud 
of a selfish diplomacy, and see the worst of the Imperial powers of 
Europe inflict all the barbarities of savage warfare upon these gallant 
people, who are trying to struggle into the light of freedom, and of 
civilization. One word of recognition from us would make them 
free. If they fail it will be our fault. If thrown backward into the 
past another century, it will be because the Great American Repub- 
lic, that should be the champion of freedom to all men, lies dead to 
their appeal against a common enemy." 

Grov. McCook is not only a soldier and a statesman, but has made 
his mark to some extent as an author ; he was one of the earliest 
contributors to Brett Hart's "Overland Monthly." He was the first 
officer of the army who suggested to the War Department the mil- 
itary necessity of employing negro troops, in a private letter to Mr. 
Stanton, the then Secretary of War, who quietly pigeon-holed the 
letter, and informed the writer that he was guilty of a piece of 
presumption. General McCook has but just passed the meridian 
of life ; it is now high noon with him; before the setting sun what 
may we not look for, from one who has achieved such honors in so 
short a time. 

752 




'^^^^j/^y^^rt 



GEIT. SAMUEL P. HEINTZELMA^-. 



Ij^AMUEL p. HEINTZELMAN wa3 born at Manlieim, Lan- 
' " caster County, Pennsylvania, on the 30th September, 1805. 
As his name indicates, he is of German descent on the 
father's side, his ancestors having been among the first settlers of 
the village of his birth. As a boy he attended the scliools of 
Manlieim and Marietta. In 1822, through the influence of James 
Buchanan, since President, he was appointed a cadet at West Point, 
where he remained until his graduation in 1826, his rank of scholar- 
ship being the seventeenth in a class of forty-two. His first commis- 
sion was that of brevet second lieutenant in the Third Infantry. 

The history of any young officer in tlie army at that time was a 
monotony of changes from one frontier post to another. After the 
usual furlough on leaving West Point, Ileintzelmaa was ordered 
to Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, and during the next six 
or seven years was on garrison duty at that post and at Fort 
Leavenworth ; Fort Mackinac, Michigan ; Fort Gratiot, Michigan ; 
and at Fort Brady, Wisconsin, except for the two years from April, 
1832, to May, 1834, when he was detached on the important topo- 
graphical duty of a survey for the improvement of the navigation 
of the Tennessee River. His full commission as second lieutenant 
in the Second Infantry bears the same date with that of his brevet 
on graduation, July 1, 1826, and he was commissioned as first 
lieutenant, March 4, 1838, which was rather rapid promotion in 
those days, when our small army was a family in which only as the 
fathers died out could the youngsters succeed to their shoulder- 
straps. Ordered to the South, the scene of the Cherokee and Sem- 
inole difficulties, Heintzelman saw considerable service in Florida 
31 7.53 



£ S A M U K I, r . H 10 T N T Z K L M A N . 

uud (loorgia, aiting as adjutant to Major Kirby in the expedition to 
Mosquito Inlet, Florida, whore be commanded the artillery of tbo 
Stoamor Dolphin and covered the lauding of the troops. During 
this period of his schooling in field duty, he served in the quarter- 
master's department in Florida and at Columbus, Georgia, his execu 
tive talent having led to his release from the routine of the line. 
He was commissioned as captain in the Second Infantry, Novembei 
4, 1S3S, bnt was retained on stati' service as quartermaster and in 
investigating Florida claims until lSi2. 

He was ordered to Buffalo in 1S43, where he married. In 1S45 
ho commanded Fort Gratiot, Michigan ; was thence assigned as 
district quartermaster at Detroit; and thence sent to Louisville, 
Ivontucky, to organize troops for the Mexican war, and attera 
ehort time passed in tlie recruiting service we find him in 1847-48 
in Mexico, engaged in tJie perilous and vexatious duty of defend 
ing convoys from Vera Cruz. The actions in which he was 
engaged were those of the Paso las Ovejas, against Padre Jna- 
rauta, September 12, 1S47 ; at the battle of Huamantla, October 
9, 1847, and the action of Atixco, October 19, 184:7. He received 
his commission as brevet major, with the date October 9, 1847, 
" for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Hua- 
mantla, Mexico." 

Returning from the fields of Mexico he was stationed at Fort 
Haniilton, New York Harbor, but in 1S4S was ordered to California 
in command of troops. The voyage was around Cape Horn in a 
sailing vessel, thus adding something to an already varied experi- 
ence. He found himself again on frontier duty on his arrival in 
California, where he was placed in command of the Southern Dis- 
trict and stationed at San Diego. His real station, however, was 
in the field. In 1850-51 he led an expedition against the Yuma 
Indians, and established Fort Ynma at the junction of the Gila and 
Colorado rivers, a most valuable frontier post, although '' John 
Phoenix " found the climate so hot, that he insisted that there was 
only a piece of brown paper between one's feet and the infern.il 
754 



SAMUKL P. HEINTZELMAN. 3 

regions. From IIiIh fort many Bailies anil scouts were made, and in 
1852 a successful aiul relentless raid against tlie Yuraas terminated 
hostilities. For his services in tliat difficult department Ilcintzel- 
man was brevettcd licuteuant-colonel, under date of December 19, 
1851. His commission as full major dates March 3, 1855. In 
lS541ie had been relieved, in accordance with the usual custom, 
and assigned to recruiting service at Newport Barracks, Kentucky, 
as respite from the severe duty to which ho had been so constantly 
subjected. But in 1859 he was ordered to Fort Duncan, Texas, 
from whence he was transfeiTcd to Camp Verde. Even in this 
hopelessly dull region he distinguished himself by an expedition 
against the Mexican marauder Cortinas, who had selected the wrong 
side of the llio Grande for his raids, and sent him back with a loss of 
several hundreds of men. There were a number of severe combats 
in which Ileintzelman participated, among them one near Fort 
Brown, December 14, 1859 ; and another at Kinggold Barracks, 
December 21. Just after these events came the mutterings of the 
approaching rebellion. General Twiggs was his superior officer, 
and, dreading the surrender that was afterward made by Twiggs, 
Heintzelman procured leave of absence, and came north in January, 
1^61, just as the war of the rebellion had become inevitable. 

Now opened a wider sphere of action. During the twenty-five 
years that Heintzelman had passed as a soldier, all his achievements 
and all his earnest toil for the country had been in obscure battles 
upon distant frontiers, or in the weary routine of an army on a 
peace footing. He was honored at the War Department, and had a 
high reputation among soldiers, but it was mostly confined to them. 
In coming North in the winter of 1860-61, he knew very well that 
he would never resume his old relations. Ho abandoned a silver 
mine in Arizona, known as the Heintzelman Mine, which was just 
beginning to work successfully under his brother-in-law, S. H. 
Lathrop, who subsequently entered the Union army, and died of 
yellow fever in Texas in 1867. 

At the North Heintzelman found a high tone of Union feeling, 
755 



4, SAMUKL P. HKINTZKI.M AN. 

in winch he tally purtit-ipiited. He assisted General Scott in the 
defense of Washington at tiie inauguration of Lineoln, Wivs sent to 
New York, April Sth, as general superintendent of the recruiting 
service in New York Harbor, but was soon recalled (May 1st), and 
iissigaed to duty as xVcting Inspector-General of the Department ot 
Washington, wlioro ho was commissioned colonel of the Seventeenth 
Infantry, on May 14th. On the 24th of May he was in immediate 
command of the iii-st "invasion of Yirginia" under General Mans- 
tield, the center crossing the Long Bridge under his direction. 
Before this, however, that is, on the 17th of May, 1801, Heintzclman 
was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers. He opened the 
actual combats of the war in a skirmish at Fairfax Court- House, 
July 17, 1S61, and led his division in the tirst battle of Bull Run, 
July 21, 1S61, his command winning its share of the scanty laurels 
of that day, eju-ly in which lleintzelman was severely wounded in 
the fore-arm and elbow. He remained in the saddle while it was 
dressed, continued in active and heroic command, sullenly retreat- 
ing at the rear of the rout, and when, on that gloomiest of raiuy 
Mondays, he dismounted at his door in Wsishiugton, he had been 
twenty-seven houi-s on the back of his horse, wounded, worn, and 
wet. His wound proved to be so severe as to permanently cripple 
the right sum. It was not until August 2d that he could be re- 
turned to duty, when he was assigned the command of a division 
holding the left of the defenses of Washington, under McClellan, 
with his head-quarters at Fort Lyon, near Alexandria, where he 
remaineil until the opening of the campaign of 1S62 in the suc- 
ceeding March. 

On the organization of the Army of the Potomac, lleintzelman 
was assigned to the comnumd of the Third Corps, consisting of three 
divisions, under the command, respectively, of Generals Fitz John 
Porter, C. S. Hamilton, and Joseph Hooker. Arrived on the pen- 
insula. Porters division was detached and a new corps organized 
for him, leaving lleintzelman with about 30,000 men, led by the 
two most dashing and ambitious generals in the service, Kesiruy 
756 



SAMtJKL P. HKIN'J'ZKLMAN. r 

and Iloukor. lleii.tzclmari wa.s fi,-.st in front of Yorkto^vn, an.l 
believed tijat an immediate attack would carry the place, and'witl. 
that purpose was pushing on when McClellan's arrival halted him 
in front of the works. After their evacuation by the Coufe.lerates, 
May 4th, Ueintzelman was put in the advance, and on the 5th' 
fought the battle of Williamsburg, the first substantia] victory of 
the war, and the first instance in the Army of the Potomac when 
entire reliance was placed upon volunteer troops, and that in an 
all-day fight of the most desperate character. At its close the New 
Jersey troops used the cartridges of their dead comrades. For his 
brdliant services on that day Ileintzelman was commissioned 
major-general of volunteers, dating on the day of the battle. 

Arrived upon the Chickahominy, the first serious battle was that of 
Seven Pmes, in which Casey's division was driven and badly beaten 
by surprise on the 31st of May. Heintzelman's corps advanced 
to Ins assistance, saved the day, and on Sunday, June 1st, took the 
offensive in the battle of Fair Oaks. He drove the enemy to 
withm four miles of Itichmond, when he reluctantly obeyed an 
order from General McCIellan to fall back. At that time the 
utmost panic prevailed in Richmond. The policy of delay prevailed 
until It was too late to strike. Heintzelman was brevetted briga- 
dier-general United States Army for his victory at Fair Oaks the 
only brevet he received during the war, all his other promot'ione 
being full commissions, and there being no vacant full brigadier- 
shijjs in the regular army. 

Now came the "change of base," or retreat from the Chicka 
hominy to the James. In that momentous seven days, Ileint/el- 
Uians corps fought with distinguished bravery at the Orchards 
June 25th ; Savage Station, June 29th ; Glendale, June 30th, when 
the general was conta^ed; at Malvern Hill, July Ut, and in the 
skirmish at Harrison's Landing, July 2d. This long list of bloody 
fights was supplemented, in the northern Virginia campaign, by 
the battle of Manassas, August 29th, and Chantilly, September ] 
1862. At the close of the last battle General Kearny was killed' 
757 • ' 



8 SAMTJKL p. HKINTZHLMAN. 

and with him the Third Corps lost one of its two heroic generals of 
division. On the 2d of September the corps camped again at Fort 
I.yon. The 40,000 men who had left the same place in March 
were reduced to G,000, hut the corps had never heen beaten in any 
action. 

From the 9th of September, 1S62, to the 13th of October, 1863, 
General Heintzelman commanded the defenses soutli of "Wash- 
ington and, nntil October 13th, the Department of Washington, 
his troops being known as the Twenty-second Corps. The position 
was one requiring great cxecntive ability, and was full of liarassing 
cares, not the least being the handling of the vast bodies of recruits 
and convalescents constantly pouring through the capital, and the 
weeding out of the great number no longer fit for service. At the 
same time his lines were constantly annoyed by guerrilla parties, 
and he was engaged in organizing raids and maintaining 
communications. 

Atter a period of inaction General Heintzelman was assigned, 
January 2, 1864, to the cominaml of the Northern Department, 
consisting of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, 
with head-quarters at Columbus, Ohio, — another dithcult position, 
During this service he suppressed, by the strong arm, the secret or- 
ganization known as " The Sons of Liberty,"' and in the second 
great uprising of 1S64 aided in organizing, arming, and sending otf 
40,000 of the militia of Ohio in the space of two weeks, the other 
States doing almost as well. On the 1st of October Heintzelman 
was relieved, and during the remainder of the war was waiting 
orders, or on court-martial duty. At the close of the war the Major 
Heintzelman of 1861 held the following living commissions, viz.: 
Colonel of the Seventeenth Infantry, United States Army; Major- 
Generid of United States Voluuteei-s, and Brevet Major-Geueral 
United States Army, the latter dating March 13, 1865, " for gallant 
and meritorious conduct at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862." 

He was mustered out of the volunteer ser\-ice August 24, 1S65, 
resumed command of his regiment at Hart's Island, New York 
7J8 



SAMUKL P. HEINI'ZlOr.MAN. « 

Harbor, September 29tb, remaining tberd until April, I860, wben 
with his regiment he was ordered to Texas, where he took eon'.mand 
of the central district, with head-quarters at San Antonio, and sub- 
sequently commanded the district of Texas entirely. Came North 
m May, 1S67, be was alternately on leave of absence or serving on 
examination or retiring boards until February 22, 1869 when he 
was retired with the rank of colonel for length of service, having 
then been an active officer in the army no less than forty-three 
years, or adding his cadetship forty-seven years. 

The retired rank assigned him was in accordance witli the regu- 
lations of the service, but there was a universal feeling that it was 
injustice, or at least an insufficient recognition of merit, and Con- 
gress-an act without precedent in army annals-passed a joint 
resolution retiring Samuel P. Heintzelman with the full rank of 
Major-General, United States Army, for wounds received at First 
Bull Run, 1862. This, with a mention of resolutions once tendered 
him by the Legislature of Pennsylvania for distinguished services in 
the Mexican war, completes his military record, save that he retains 
his old associations as a member of the mib'tary ord-.r of the Loyal 
Legion of the United States, of the Society of ti,o Third Corps and 
of the Army of the Potomac. ' 

Such is the record of a long life devoted to country. 1 1 includes 
a weary period of slow promotion in times of comparative peace 
supplemented by rapid successes when the opportunity of a great 
war came. It was only in active campaign, in stern, hard fighting 
that Heintzelman achieved triumphs. He was no holiday soldier 
but though he was sometimes nicknamed "gray and grim "-all 
good generals have a sobriquet-he had a peculiar faculty of winnin-. 
without courting the affections of those who served upon his staff 
Without the slightest sycophancy to superiors, or ostentatious conde 
scension to inferiors, he held the confidence of one and the love of 
the other. He never shirked a hardship himself, and never inflicted 
one, except when the exigencies of the service demanded it 
Happy in his refined social and domestic relations, his moral 
759 



8 SAMUEL P. HEINTZELMAN. 

influence was always puiv, as liis charity tor the faults of others 
was broad. Impatient in inaction, hot and impetuous when the 
fight was on, yet never reckless or careless of the lives of his men, 
ho had at once the coolness, the determined bravery, the unsel- 
fishness, and the t\tprit that make the true soldier, and his career 
must be regarded as one of the most distinguished and success- 
ful in the Army of the Union. Let his record speak. Eulogy 
is idle. 

7G0 



HENRr SMITH. 

^CTpHE great mass of the American people are apt to look upon 
^^^ a man wlio has acquired social or political distinction as a 
"chance child of fortune," whose success is rather attributa- 
ble to some lucky accident than to any merit of his own. But to 
those who have the patience and industry to go over the hard-fought 
fields, to follow the devious and rugged roads which lead our public 
men to eminence, there is nothing singular in the fact that so many 
grow weary of the fight, and retrace their steps, and nothing to be 
wondered that the few who possess the power of endurance to con- 
tinue the battle, should meet with the reward of a victor. 

Success is not an accident-never was. A triumph achieved in 
the latter way will be but brief in duration ; permanent and well- 
founded distinction can only be won by those who base their aspira- 
tions upon justice, fidelity to principle, adherence to law and re- 
ligion, and must be pursued with unflagging industry and persever- 
ance, and accomplished over stupendous and often appalling difficul- 
ties. There is not a spot upon the hill of fame upon which a man 
can set his eye, or aim to possess himself of, that a thoasand others 
do not simultaneously seek, and in order to win it, he must success- 
fully combat the opposition of them aU, ^^^ ^jj^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ 
who can do this, is not a hero by accident, but by merit and right. 
Single out any of our public, self-made men, and accompany them 
over the tortuous road that led them to success ; witness the strug- 
gles, the heart-aches, the ponderous obstacles that have been inter- 
posed ; the Herculean efi^orts that have been required to overcome 
76-1 



2 HF.NKY SMITH. 

thcni, and wo tliiiik tlio most skeptical will agree that some rest, 
some compcnsatiou is due to recompense for the labor expended. — 
Wo can imagine the state of mind in which people sometimes find 
themselves, often having toiled to the very door of anticipated suc- 
cess, by the remarlc made by Eilmund Kcan before leaving the house 
on the night when lie achieved that triumph which placed him first 
in the list of actors : " If I succeed now, I shall go mad !" There 
are thousands who have felt the same misgiving, that the ideal pursued 
might prove, after all, to be a bauble, a phantom which lured them 
on to madness. 

In this city, we have hundreds of self-made men, who are proud 
that they are the architects of their own fortiuics, and whom we 
honor, a hundred fold, for that very reason. 

The subject of this sketch, Hon. Henry Smith, was born in the 
year 1S18, at Caiiglmawaga, Montgomery county, N. Y., and con- 
sequently is now fifty-three years of age. The early part of his 
life was spent on the fiarm of his father, who was one of the early 
settlers of the county. The opportunities presented by these re- 
mote districts for the acquisition of knowledg3, or the advantages 
of education other than that derived from tilling the soil, were very 
limited, being removed from schools, and from the association of 
men whose contiguity might tend to improve the intellect, or en- 
large the information of those who surrounded them. Nevertheless, 
young Smith remained upon the farm until eighteen years of age, 
and it may be that the lessons of patience, industry and discipline 
to labor, which he here received, served to qualify him for his after 
career, in which these qualities have been so reipiisite, and in his 
case so characteristic and so potent. 

Feeling convinced that the farm was not his predestined place in 
life, and being inspired with higher ambitions — feeling that duty 
called him to other fields of labor, where he might eiliciently work 
for the interests of his country, and do justice to the attributes and 
executive faculties with which ho felt he was invested, he left his 
762 



IlKNllV .SMITH. 8 

fatli(!r'H liouic, ami at tlie ago of eighteen caine to the city of New 
York. Without inotn,-}', without friends, witliout any auxiliary to 
liuecess other than a Ijrave heart and a stout, labor-horned arm, he 
entered this great city, unknown and unnoticed amid tbe hustling 
confusion, and avaricious interest seekers of this modern Balx;!, and 
located himsi.-lf in the Eighteenth Ward, where he has continued to 
reside for thirty-four years. Here he commenced his lile-work, lay 
ing the foundations of his future fortune and fame upon unshifting 
ground, based ujmn industry, continued in Iionor, and jjerjjctuated 
injustice and fidelity to i)riiici|jle and friendstiip. 

In 1841 he made his first appearance in politics, and was elected 
a delegate to the Whig Convention. In 18.53 he was elected to the 
council Board in this city, in which he served for four years. In 
1838 he was elected Alderman, and served, to the satisfaction of 
his constituents, until 18fJ2, winning hosts of friends and admirers 
by his integrity, his firm adhenmce to the pnncijjles of iiis party, 
and the promptness and ability witii which he discharged every 
tiust confided to him. 

In 1864 he was elected Supervisor, which office he held until 1870. 
In 1869 he was elected by the State Legislature one of the commis- 
sioners of Metroitolitan Police, a position which he held up to the 
appointment of the present Board. He is now Treasurer 
of the Police Department of the city of New York, the duties 
of which office, added to those of commissioner, keep his time well 
occupied. 

In all the positions to which his fellow citizens have called him, 
lie has displayed an intelligence, zeal and fidelity which challenge 
the confidence and admiration of his friends, as well as of the com- 
munity. He has achieved a wondrous success, both in mercantile 
and political life, and if we search for the secret by which he has ac- 
complished so much, we are led to attribute it to his large hearted- 
ness, and the shrewd tact and strong common sense which leads him 
always in the right direction, and which, through his long and event- 
7*J3 



fill oanor hns iiovcr inailo it noivssiiry lor liiiii to rotiju'c a stoponco 
tiikiMi, nor to ill ti'inl liis I'liiuliu-t on any oii'asion. 

A man of wann, synipiithctio natnro, he nninluTs anmn'^ his pcr- 
souiil tVionils many of tlio most notwl men of our day, and no man 
will nmko givator sacrilii-os to friendship than Mr. JSmitii. In his 
politiealivlations he has no friends who are not such through lovo 
and admiration, and they are myriad in nuinher and belong to both 
parties. No man is mon« prodigal of his wealth where an iinwrtant 
political ndvantngo is at stake, and the Kepublicau party of this 
eity and State mx> more indebted to his liberality and elcar-htvuled 
foifsight than they ever have given him cix'dit lor. Whether as 
n Whig, while that parly was in existence, or as a Itepubliean, 
since the inception of the Republican party, he ever hiis been un- 
swerving and consistent in his adheivn e to party principles, party 
ties and claims, though never allowing a dilfeivnce of opinion to 
blind him to the personal worth of a political opponent, or to ivn- 
der him iudiQoivnt to the claims of humanity or the demands ot 
friendship. 

Though pn>ssed by business au-os which would bear down a man 
o( onlinary vitality, he alwaj"s presents a cheerful ap{)earancc, and 
greets all with defeivntial courtesy luid kindness. In his capacity 
of Tn>asuror of the New York Policv, he is compelled daily to see 
huudaxls ol applicants and jn^titioncrs for place and favor; he is in- 
teivstetl lai-gi>ly in the djiily lineof steamlx^ats iK^twetni this city and 
Allwny; an active particiimnt in the political discussions and tniu- 
sjvctions of the day; has interests in meivantilo and tinancial institu- 
tions of our city, and his social relations and acquaintances are ex- 
tensive ju\d never neglected. Yet, under all these anxieties, he 
kivps a light heart and buoyant spirits. Possesseil of a strong phy- 
sical institution, though tifty-thnv yearsold, he really looks much 
youuger. Bismark lias stud '* there are young men of fifty and old 
men of twenty-five." Mr. Smith seems to In? a living evidence of 
this truth, for his step is as firm, his mind as subservient, his braiu 
T(i4 



IlKNUV SMITH. 5 

aK cl(;ar and niioloiulid, and hiH oyiiH as Iccoi: and (iiiick, aH that of 
iiirmt men at twoiity-fivc, and hiH a|>|)(!araric<i wuuld indicate I Fiat, 
notwitlistandinj^ tj-ie extraordinary strain upon IiIh mental and jdiy- 
sical povverH, he huH not yet liveil more than lialf Jiis life, though lie 
has accompliHJied more tlian tlie labors of a cenlury. Tluit ]>'.» scr- 
vicoH have been appreciated, and that h'; is beloved by his fVieiidH, 
hiis often been made manifest, bnt nevi.-r, perhaps more strikingly 
than on January IGlh, 1871, at the Bt. Nicholas Hotel, when he 
was presented with a beaiitiiiil set of silver by his friends. The 
presentation was also made the occasion of a banquet, which was 
jiarticipated in by the most ijrominent persons of both jiolitical par- 
ties. The presentation was made by Hon. Cluiuncey M. Depcw, in 
an eloquent and fitting speech, in which he recalled many of the 
early struggles and triumphs of Mr. Smith, who, in responding, said: 

Okntlemk.s :— 1 am tliankfiil tt> you, my fiieri(i)», for tho (?reat honor you do rue thin 
evening. I winh it wim in my [ijwcr t(j exprotw to you how grateful I feel for it. The 
comiilirnent wliich tbi» hetiitiful leHtimonial earriex with it umi the hearty reception I 
have received here ttj-ni'^ht, excite in me emotions which I cannot find wordM to ex- 
prewK. I must content myHclf l>y Himply aMHUring you tliat I Kincercly appreciate thiv 
cxprewiion of your etiteem and fiicndHhip, and I will alwayH look upon it with pride 
and gratitude. I am a««ure<l that among the Bubiscriljeni U> the toitimonial arc many 
gentlemen who are not identified with either of the politicil partle;4 of the State, 
while there are otherii who are of the party to which I am oppow^d. It is pleasant for 
me to know that amid the competition which ix natural U> huKiuew in thix city, and 
the hittcrncsK which Kometimcij charactcri»!ti our political camjialgnH, our iientonal 
friendiihipt) iiavc remained the «amc. 'I°hi8 fact givcH a<Iditional value to thin beautiful 
testimonial. My friend, among other tbingB, bail Mpoken of my Kerviceo to the great 
poHtic.il party of which I am a memljer. I will be jrardoncd if on thi» oaxwion 1 Hay 
a few wordu on that Bubject. Ijuring the thirty years I have taken an active [«trt in 
politics, I have given freely of my means and services for the success of my jrarty and 
its cindid.itcs. I have didered (.n occasions, it is true, with my friends as U> candi- 
d!iti.-s, party organizations and the best means to a<xx>mplish the eml we all hiid at 
hi^rt ; but u|ion tlie simple que-tion of party a.sc«n<lancy I have never wavered My 
record i.a the Whig and Ilepablican parly is ma'Ie up, I am not here to defend or ex- 
plain it. The enilors'-'iiicnt which it receivcii here t<;-niglit from th(«i'; of my own par- 
ty who know it best is all sufficient for me, and is a fitting reply to those who would 
distort and defame it. I a;;ain tliank you for this generous and unexpectcl considera- 
tion, and I hope tliat nothing will ever occur to blemish the memory of this oc.»siun. 

After the presentation the guests marched to the banquet hall, 
where four large tables, placed lengthwise in the room, and one 
across at the head, were laden with an epicurean feast. The table 
was uniquely ornamented, containing a North River steamboat, the 
City Mall, Nongat in baskets, a la vienne, canal boat in transit. 
Port de Triomplie, Grand Vasa des Fleurs, Fountain a la Itomain. 
765 



6 HENIIY SMITH. 

On tlie removal of the cloth, tlio Chairman, Mr. Waldo ITiitchin.^s, 
said : 

Gentlemen: — Wc have assBmblcd this evening to testify by our presence here our 
re.spect for our honored friend, the Hon. Henry Smith. Our friend is emphatically a 
self mudo man. lli^ |i(i-ilii)ii in tliis connnunity is due eTitiiily ti> liis own efforts, and 

toliisuMr.il ni.ln~.ii\. Ill- uhliiiiiL; tliought, and his itiiiniinlil'- inl. -rity. 'Jhisisaf- 
fordiiii: I I i ' >'" n. n'V instances of tile spiiii iiiii i iini 'il' our institutions, 

thatni'ii: I I I' f I 1' Ml. r.'.-w to a man honisl. j.' i i i m. iiid persevering.^ 

Mr. Siniili 1 , 1, i:i.. . I M lie. lie limi few of Ihr :lll^ nit.. ;. I., which m:iny of 

his a.S,<i Millie lAVr -II' 1 1' > ill lit'' I'll '111 I'lniv l.i.vlnin'l lir li.i III ' II .'..nil. I'll. 'il t'. U'.lk 
his own n.i.\ . II.' w.i . ^I:il I'll ill lili' .'Mlili h ..n III- own imill , nil. I lliil ,-'l.'.' -s 
whicli III- II. IS .'I. I, nil. 'I il. 111.', I.i.lli ill |.ii\..l.' .'.n.l III |iiil.li.'. i- .111.' .'iilii.'l\ 1.. Iii- ..'M, 
individniil I il..iis II.' I..- m. lii.' in :in linniM.' c i|..i.in ..n I lir I'ji.' t 'ninl, unii.iii;,' 
forniiiin m' n^ i..i ,. -mill mii. j. ll.'^ In Ls II h,' 1. Il lli.' |.I:i.'.' . Mil- l.n In an.lcuine 
tothisi'iu «li.i. u. iiii'MiiMi ,ii'. i--i T ..I 111.' M.'h.. ,...1.1,111 r..li.'.', ulicre he 

now is. l..inn..l 1' II' I illii II. Ill 111.' .'..nil. I. 11.'. in uhi. li lir i- li |.| l.> his fellow- 

citizens, th.iu I.) .sl.Uinji Uic wui.ms i.nsili.n- In' III.- I II .i.ll..l.m,laslu-.l I., occupy. 

Among others he ii a. hirgc owner aud prin.i|. 1 1 in i!. 'i.ii\ Hue of steamers between 
this port and Albany ; he is a director in I In m n m i.e in two savings bsinks, 
and director in several insurance institution-, ,1 il n ..iIht business enterprises. 

Now, gentlemen, his political frienils of 111. inii .| ..nili 1 am. and to which I 
belong, have prosented him witli a lnsliiii..iil.il ..| Ih.ir iv m.l nitnetlon and esteem. 
And lara hereasa i;n|iuhli<MM of Ih.'stii.i.si s..'l.a-si. I'milsms. to say and testi- 
fy t<) it. I have licani very mti.h ol hlr..! .!.-,i lion . .f |..irl\, . spirially on my side, 
the Uepublican : I liiv. h.' ir.l of 'I nniiininv 1; piihlii ins th. .!. niiiioii 1 .Ion' t know 
— Idon't understiin.l. Il 1 .li.l. I «,.iil,l i.i.'i l..nn In.n.l. r.-ll' i... M'lvphv Ihave 
heard of f.K-tious iili.l .liM-i.. IIS hm ;, T.iinn, nn U' piil.ll.' m l.'^'l l'";l nslongas 
I canrememher.tli.- il.in Mr SiniHinn.l inv-ill miv in ,'I..m- ..i-,,iii/, iii..n together, 
and we worked together in :■ I I i : il ' ...ill .m lino, Hcuiy (lav, of the West.^ We 
remained together till is i i i f i, ni.M .m party came into uxisteuce. So far 
as it is known, not a mon i! i \, hi -p. le.l against Mr. Smith's name, either 

in the old Whig party oi m i i s,. i ir asfunds go, no man has contrib- 

uted as he has. Thismiili I 1 ' I pihlican. I wish we had more of the 

same kind. Mr. Hutcliin ! l i ih. I if his friend Smith was a Tam- 

many Republican, he wish. I I I I I I I tlie same sort, and if they had 

they would not be in a mill 1 lu m i in- Mil. t . i eat applause.] You will pardon 
me for saying, said he, what 1 ii,u e said. 1 know that there are gentlemen here of 
the Tammany party, forwhonr 1 have respect. 1 have little esteem for a man who 
can't draw the line of distinction between friendship and polititics. And when the 
time arrives when I can't speak or meet with my politiavl opponent in a social gather- 
ing as a friend, without being accused of being a Tammany Uepublican, although I 
shall continue to give my vote, I shall retire and leave the front rank to those who 
can please their fellow-citizens by that enticing way. [Great cheering.] 

Speeches were made by Mayor Hall, Gen. Cochrane, Rufus F, 
Andrews, T. J. Alvord, Clms. P. Winnegar, and J. W. Rusted, 
and others. 

The plate was manufactured by Mr. Kirkpatrick, and is valued 
at $8,000. It comprises full dinner and tea sets. A glass case 
contained the larger pieces, and a chest of polished rosewood, lined 
with blue velvet, contained the lesser articles, numbering in all 320 
pieces, comprising the following : A waiter of solid silver, some 
forty -lour inches in its greatest diameter, bearing the inscription, 
76 (j 



HKNUY RMITIT. 7 

"Presented to Iletiry Sinitli, by a few IViends, January l(J, 1S71," 
with engravings of a canal boat (alluding to tlie incidents of Mr. 
Smith's early life), the steamboat "Chauncey Vibbard," one of the 
People's Line of steamers, in which Mr. Smith is largely interested ; 
tiger's head of the Araericus Club, of which he is Vice-President ; 
the Arms of the city of New York, of which he is one of the Po- 
lice Commissioners, and the monogram " H. S." The central and 
principal jjiece is an epergne, two feet and six inches from the base 
to the highest point, and the upper dish of which is supported by 
a female figure twelve inches high, chased in dead pearl finish, and 
with drapery of gold. This, and all the larger pieces, are orna- 
mented with engraved medallion portraits, and miniature tigers rara- 
liant, leaning upon a shield, or, with handles worked in the form of 
a tiger rampant. The following is a complete list of the remaining 
pieces : One soup tureen, four vegetable dishes, a coffee urn, a full 
tea set, two sauce tureens, and two gravy bowls. The following are 
contained in the rosewood case : Two butter dishes, four large 
salt cellars, one dozen individual salts, one dozen napkin rings, one 
soup ladle, one oyster ladle, one punch ladle, onepair of knife rests, 
two dozen pearl-handled knives, two dozen ivory-hiindlcd knives, 
with carvers and steels to match each ; one dozen nutpicks, one 
dozen each of table, desert, and oyster forks ; one dozcTi tea knives, 
one dozen each of table, desert, egg, coffi-e, and ice cream spoons ; 
two dozen teaspoons, two side dish spoons, a pie knife, a toast fork, 
fish knife and fork, two preserve spoons, a cake knife, marrow spoon, 
olive spoon and fork, two cream ladles, a cake lifter, a sugar sifter, 
two vegetable spoons, ice cream spoon, cheese scoop, asparagus 
tongs, salad tongs, ice tongs, sugar tongs, and beef tongs, a crown 
knife, two ice spoons, two gravy ladles, two mustard and four salt 
cpoons, two butter knives, two sardine forks, a berry spocm, a nut 
spoon, and two sugar spoons. These articles are all of solid silver, 
richly chased and burnished. 

7G7 



WILLIAM BEACH LAWEENCE, LL. D., 

OP RHODE ISLAND. 

BY CHARLES HENRY HART, LL. B., 
Historiographer of the- Niiraiainatic and Antiquarian Society of Pliitadelphla. 

^ tip HOUGH Mr. Lawrence was, in very early manhood, long 

r^^ enough the representative of the United States in London 
^ to obtain for his dispatches an honorable place in the 
diplomatic annals, and has satisfactorily exercised the functions 
of chief magistrate of his adopted State, it is not on his brief pub- 
lic career that his reputation is based. 

His annotations on the law of nations, in connection with the 
text of his friend "Wheaton, are not only recognized as authorities 
throughout the civilized world, but have been translated into 
Chinese and Japanese, and adopted as the universal international 
code. 

William Beach Lawrence was born in the city of New York, on 
the 23d of October, 1800, and though ever the advocate of the 
equal rights of naturalized citizens, he is as purely American, by 
descent, as any one of European origin can be, not having in his 
veins a single drop of blood derived from an ancestor who emi- 
grated to this continent after the English conquest of JSTew York. 

The Lawrence family came from England to the New Nether- . 
lands, before the middle of the seventeenth century. They patented 
portions of what afterwards constituted the towns of Flushing, 
Hempstead, and Newtown, on Long Island. The original settlers, 
as well as their immediate descendants, held eminent positions 
under the Dutch and the early English colonial governments 
"Holgate's American Genealogy" (Albany, 1848, pp. 201-228), 
7(J9 



9 WlI.t.I.VM BKACU I.AWURNOR. 

sliows iiu »inintt>n-ui>toii siMios of iiitoriuiiniuijoa hotwccii the 
LHwroncos niul tho Briitckorliotfs, and othors, whoso iiimics indicato 
tlioir Dutch origin, oovoriiig tho wholo period whicli iiitorvonod 
hotwoon tho oiuiijration and tho hirth of tl\o suhjcot of this sketch. 
His nintornal jjrand father, tho Rovorond Doctor Iu>aoli,* for many 
yours minister of Trinity Oimroii, New York, was descended from 
tho tii-st white ehiki horn in Conneotiout, and l\e intonnarried 
with a Dutch heiress, Ann Van Winkle, who hohh under a patent 
to her ancestoi-s froni the government of tho Kew Nethorhmds, 
an estate near New l?rnnswick, now possessed by some of her 
di>soendant*. 

Mr. Lawrence, liaving already passed two years at Queen's (now 
Rnts;ei-s) Oellege, New Brunswick, entered Columbia College in his 
native eity, at tlio ago of fourteen, and wi\s graduated with distin- 
guislied honors, in ISIS. On leaving college, ho became a student 
in tlie ortice of William Slosson, then the most eminent com- 
mercial lawyer of New York. After some time spent there and at 
Litchtiold, where, undei- Judges Eeeves and Gould, was then tho 
groat law school of the country, ho in 1S21 visited Europe. He 
pjvssed two years in England, France, and Italy, availing himself 
of a winter in Paris, as well to attend the course of lectures on 
Political Economy, by Say, as to frequent tho school of law. He 
was thus enabled to combine, with his knowledge of the English 
oonimon law, an acquaintance with tho Roman civil law, as modi- 
tied in Continental Eun^pe, — knowledge essential to a commentator 
on international law, especially in that branch of it which involves 
the comparative legislation of states, and which forms the subject 
of his latest writings. 

In going abroad Mr. Lawrence enjoyed every advantage which 
an American could well possess, to t'acilitate his objects of intel- 
lectual and social improveuient. When the Bank of the Uuiteil 
States was incorporatcil at the close of the war of ISl:}, so far iV^m 

• A bic^raphioal notice of l\>ctor Ixvioh fmm the [>ou of liis gnuidsoa will bo foiuiif 
iu Spraguo"* " Anuals of the .\morioau Pwlpit," vol. V., page 335. 

770 



W;i,f,f AM JiKAOH f,A Wlil'.SCK 

there being, m in tl.e time of fieneral JaekHon an<l Mr. iJirJ,]),. an 
antagoniHn. between itaruj tl,e I."c<Jeral adn,ini«lration, it waMJeemed 
entirely a national i/mtitntion, and the father of Mr. Uwrene*, wan 
8elected, aa a eonniHtent hupporter of the government, for the prefh 
KJency of the branch at New York, then regarded a« the higheHt 
dr^tinetion that could be conferred on a retired nierchant. I'reMi- 
dont Monroe, moreover, recognized in young Lawrence the t-.on 
of one of the "Presidential Eieetors" at hi« recent election. JJe 
gave to him Jetter« of introduction to hiH illuHtrioug predecr*. 
eors, JcficrHon and Madison; and it ,n ay well be Huppo.^.d that 
the IcHsonH of political science derivc-J from a vi«it Uj the«e «age« 
were of ine«ti,nable value to a young American about Uj view 
institutions of government from a European standpoint. Mr. Mad- 
iHon commended Mr. Lawrence nu^t strongly to Mr. Rush, then 
our minister in London, and who had been a favorite member of 
his cabinet. From Mr. Jc/f-.-rson he was the bearer of a h-ttc-r of 
introduction to the Marquis de Lafayette, who, as a member of the 
Chamber of Deputies in the reign of Uuis XViJL, was then 
struggling, at no JittJe personal hazard, for r^.nstitutional libert,y 
It was at a subsequent period, when on a visit at La Grange, that 
Mr. Lawrenrx. was invitx^d U, be present at Lafayette's re/;ital U, 
Mr. Hparks of thecirc.imstat,cc* which had induce.] him U, embark 
in the American revolution, a« well hh of the interesting defaiJH 
cor.nect<.d with his interc^.urse with General Wachingt^.n, and the 
events of our Revolutionary War. 

President Monroe vttro<la,-jA Mr. Lawrence to Lord I/oJIand 
With whom and Lord Auckland, he W], in conjunction with Mr' 
Pinkncy, ry.nducte^J the negotiations of 1)506, which result.^ in 
a treaty tfuit failed \4, obtain the absent of Prr^ident .Mferson, on 
accr.unt of the omission of any provision with n.-gard to the 'im- 
pressment of our sailors. From the Secretary of State, John 
C^iney Adams, Mr. and Mrs. Uwrenr^e n^x-ived intro^Jorrtions v> 
all our diplr^atic representatives. Their opportunities for Lur.>. 
pean interc^.ur^ were further increase.] by the ry.urtr-sy of M 
771 



4 WILLIAM BEACH LAWRENCE 

Hyde de Neuville, then French minister at Washington, to whom 
they had been well known during his exile. They also had intro- 
ductions from King Joseph to the Bonaparte family at Rome, 
including the Princess Borghese, whose salons were frequented by 
the most eminent society of Europe. 

On Mr. Lawrence's return from abroad, in 1823, he was admitted 
a counselor of the Supreme Court of New York; but, though 
always an industrious student, his attention was especially given 
to public and international law, to which he was particularly 
prompted by his intercourse with Mr. Wheaton, with whom he 
then formed an intimate acquaintance, which resulted in a life-lung 
friendship. That his attention in Europe was not confined to his 
special pursuit will appear from the address delivered in 1825 
before the New York Academy of Fine Arts, and which was 
commended in the North American Review and other periodicals 
of the day. In it will be found an appreciative notice of the 
ancient and modem schools of Art. 

Mr. Gallatin, who when minister in Paris had known the atten- 
tion which Mr. Lawrence gave to subjects fitting him for diplomatic 
employment, asked, on his own appointment, in 1826, to London, 
that he should be named secretary of the legation. The duties 
confided to that minister besides those of ordinary diplomatic repre- 
sentation, were of the most important character. The commercial 
intercourse between the United States and the British American 
provinces, including the West India trade, was then suspended, 
owing to what appeared to be irreconcilable conflicting pretensions. 
The general commercial treaty was to be revised and the bound- 
aries between the United States and the British possessions were 
to be settled. Insti'uctions were also given, though without effect- 
ing any result, for adjusting those disputed points of international 
law, including the right of impressment, which had been preter- 
mitted in the Treaty of Ghent. How far the secretary was able 
to render efficient aid in the course of the negotiations may be 
inferred from the assurance, given by Mr. Gallatin, in his final 
772 



WILLIAM BEACH LAWRENCE. 5 

dispatch to the Secretary of State, of the entire competency of 
Mr. Lawrence to conduct alone the affau's of the mission. 

Mr. Gallatin having returned home in 1827, the ratification 
of the several treaties concluded by him were exchanged by Mr. 
Lawrence, who had been appointed charge d'affaires by the Presi- 
dent, and to whom, as the plenipotentiary of the United States, 
was confided the selection of the arbiter to determine the boundary 
line on our northern and northeastern frontier. While that mat- 
ter was still undisposed of, difficulties arose as to conflicting juris- 
diction in the disputed territory menacing hostilities between the 
two countries, which led to an extended correspondence between 
the representative of the United States and Lords Dudley and 
Aberdeen. The nature of the title of the United States to all the 
territory embraced in the treaty of 1783, was discussed on our side 
with an ability which the journals of the day declared would, in 
any country where diplomacy was recognized as a regular avoca- 
tion, have secured for the writer of the notes a permanent career. 
The character of Mr. Lawrence's dispatches, which are to be found 
inserted at length in the state papers of the United States and 
Great Britain (Cong. Doc, H. K., 20 Cong., 2 Ses., No 90, p. 76 ; 
Am. Ann. Eeg., 1827-8-9, pp. 2, 86. British Foreign State Papers, 
1827-8, p. 584), may be inferred from the fact that, more than thirty 
years afterward, portions of them were transferred without altera- 
tion to Lawrence's Wheaton, (2d Annotated Ed. 1863, p. 37) and to 
his French Commentaire, (vol. I., p. 170). He has, in those works, 
besides other matters, drawn largely from his dispatches in regard 
to the relations of the Western powers and of Eussia to the aflairs 
of Turkey, and the establishment of the kingdom of Greece, which 
took place during his time. {Commentaire, vol. I., p. 412). So sat- 
isfactorily were the duties of the English mission discliarged by Mr. 
Lawrence, that he not only received from the President, Mr. Adams, 
and the Secretary of State, Mr. Clay, the highest commendations, 
but assurances were given to him, which the change of administra- 
tion defeated, of an appointment to Berlin, where there had been 
773 



Q WILLIAM BEACH LAWKENCB. 

no minister since Mr. Adams himself, who was recalled in ISul. 
This mission was not tilled till Mr. Wheatou's transfer to it from 
Copenhagen, in 1S35. 

The works of Jeremy Bentliani, whom ^[r. Wheaton termed "the 
greatest legal reformer of modern times," show his appreciation of 
Mr. Lawrence (Ed. of Sir John Bowring, vol. XL, p. 36), who, more- 
over, besides his association with the diplomatic corps and the 
pnblic men of England, was, during his residence in London, a 
member of the Political Economy Club to which McCuUoch, Sir 
John Bowring, the historian Grote, and others of like repute be- 
longed. He was also at that period a contributor to the West^nin- 
sttr Review, and the notice of one of Fennimore Cooper's works, 
written in England, is from his pen. 

On leaving London, at the close of 1828, Mr. Lawrence passed 
several months in Paris. He occupied his leisure, while tliere, in 
translating into English the history of the treaty of Louisiana by 
Marbois, who had been minister of France to the United States 
during our Revolution, and was the French plenipotentiary for con- 
cluding that negotiation. The translation was published in 1830. 
Mr. Lawrence's acquaintance with this veteran diplomatist, who, 
notwithstanding his advanced age, continued not only to occupy 
his seat in the Chamber of Peers, but to perform other important 
official duties, brought him into contact with many eminent men of 
the day. Among those who frequented the salons of the Marquis 
de Marbois, were Guizot, so well-known as the minister of Louis 
Philippe, Villemain, and Cousin. These three hommes de lettres 
are specially mentioned ; inasmuch as their lectures at the Sor- 
bonne, which were attended by thousands, and of which Mr. 
Lawrence profited, aftorded in the reign of Charles X. the only 
opportunities of giving utterance to patriotic aspirations. 

On bis return home, the American Annual Register, to which 

President Adams was also a contributor, was availed of, by the 

subject of tliis sketch, to embody in the articles on dilFerent 

countries of Europe, wliich he furnished for the volumes from 1829 

774 



WILLIAM BEACH LAWIllONGE. 7 

to 1834, the fruits of his foreign observation. But a subject es- 
pecially cognate to his diplomatic studies was the prosecution of 
claims in which his family were largely interested, under the treaty 
of indemnity made with France by Mr. Eives in 1831. These 
claims for spoliations, principally under the Imperial Decrees of 
Napoleon, in violation of the law of nations, led to minute investi 
gations of the rights of belligerents and neutrals. His arguments, 
printed for the Commission, supplied valuable materials for his 
annotations on the " Elements of International Law." The argu- 
ment showing the exceptional character of the " Antwerp cases" 
was specially commended in those presented on the same subject 
by Mr. Sargeant and Mr. Webster. 

Shortly after Mr. Lawrence's return to New York, he delivered 
a course of lectures on Political Economy to the Senior Class of 
Columbia College, which, after having been repeated before the 
Mercantile Library Association, were published in 1832. These lec- 
tures were intended to demonstrate the Ricardian theory, and to sus- 
tain those doctrines of free trade of which he has ever been a con- 
sistent advocate. He also pronounced an anniversary discourse be- 
fore the New York Historical Society .in 1832, which was published 
under the expressive title of "The Origin and Nature of the Repre- 
sentative and Federative Institutions of the United States." Other 
papers of Mr. Lawrence's, who was vice-president of the society 
from 1836 to 1845, will be found in the printed proceedings of 
that respectable body. Several articles from his pen ajjpeared at 
different times in various periodicals. Among those specially no- 
ticed in contemporaneous works, and reprinted separately, was 
one in 1831, entitled "Bank of the United States," which was 
originally published in the North American Review. Another, 
"An Inquiry into the Causes of the Public Distress," was re- 
printed in 1834, from the American Quarterly Review , and the 
"History of the Negotiations in Reference to the Eastern and 
North-eastern Boundaries of the United States," published in 1841, 
was prepared for the New York Review. 



g WILLIAM BEAOH LAWRENOB. 

Mr, Lawrence rosumed the practice of the hiw, on his return from 
the Englisli mission, in connection with Mr, llauiilton Fish, the 
present Secretary of State of tlie United States, ilis argument be- 
fore the Court of Errors, in 1845, is an exliaustive examination of 
the law of " Ciiaritable Uses" in its relation to religious societies. 
He was successful in reversing, by a vote of fourteen to three, the 
decision of the Chancellor, which had given to a small minority of 
a congregation the church property, on the ground of a deviation 
of the majority from the doctrines of the founders. (Miller vs. 
Gable, i Denio, 570,) 

Mr. Lawrence removed, in 1850, to his estate, known as Ochre 
Point, on the shore of the Atlantic, near Newport, Rhode Island, 
where he already had had his summer residence for several years. 
Without any intimation to him he was, on the earliest occasion, 
nominated as lieutenaut-governor on the Democratic ticket, which 
then, for the first time in a long period, was successful. Soon 
after his entrance into office, he became, under the provision of the 
constitution, governor of the State. While in the performance of 
the duties of chief magistrate, he visited the ditferent jails, and in 
a report, subsequently made to the Senate, he pointed out the 
abuses to which imprisonment for debt, which Rhode Island was 
the last State of the Union to retain, had given rise. Through his 
instrumentality, an act for its abolition passed one house, but it was 
not till 1870 that the barbarous feature was removed from the 
statute book. 

During the period for which Mr. Lawrence was elected, great 
political principles were made subservient to the temporary excite- 
ment which pervaded New England for the passage of what was 
called the "Maine Liquor Law," which prohibited the sale of all 
exhilirating drinks. He was instrumental in defeating the passage 
of the bill by the Legislature, opposing to it the same constitutional 
objections for which the law subsequently passed was repudiated 
by Judge Curtis, in the Circuit Court of the United States. Ad- 
vantage was taken of the popular feeling on this subject to defeat 
776 



WILLIAM BEACH LAWRENCE. g 

by an act of gross political treachery, ],is re-election on the State 
ticket. It was feared tliat the distinction which Mr. Lawj'cnco had 
already acc|nired during his brief public career in the State might 
give him too much prominence and influence and thus interfere 
with the ambitious aspirations of otliers, especially in relation to 
the United States Senate, for which an election was then about to 
take ]jlace. 

Anotlier cause for hostility to Mr. Lawrence, f.'om those who 
wished to continue the State as a rotten borough, was his opposi- 
tion to the exceptional provision in the constitution of Ehode Island, 
which discriminates between native and naturalized citizens, making 
a distinction which he ever contended was in violation of tlie pro- 
vision of the Constitution of the United States, conferring on Con- 
gress the power of naturalization. 

Mr. Wheaton having died in 1848, leaving his family in great 
destitution, Mr. Lawrence undertook for their benefit a publication 
of the " Elements of International Law." The first edition, anno- 
tated by him and preceded by a notice of the author, was published 
in 1855. This work, of which more than two thirds consisted of 
matter furnished by Mr. Lawrence, was at once adopted as a text- 
book by the English universities as well as by the government and 
the courts of that country. Of the first edition, five hundred copies 
were taken, under an act of Congress, for our ministers and consuls 
abroad. This edition was followed by another in 1863, many of 
the annotations in which were rewritten, bringing down the state 
of the law to the latest period. To aid in the preparation of this 
work, every facility was afforded by Mr. Marcy, General Cass, and 
Judge Black, successively Secretaries of State, who placed at Mr. 
Lawrence's disposition the archives of their department. 

It was on the appearance of the second edition that, at the 
request of Brockhaus, of Leipsic, who had published the " History 
of the Law of Nations" of Wheaton, as well as his "Elements 
of International Law," in French, that Mr. Lawrence un.jertook 
the preparation of a commentary in that language. The order of 
777 



id 



10 WILLIAM BEACH LAWRENCE. 

Wlieiiton's "EleniGiits" is followed, but the work, of •which two 
volumes have been published and which will extend to six or eight, 
is entirely original. The publication of a portion of the third 
volume, relating to private international law, has been anticipated 
by two successive articles in the Revue de Droit International, of 
Ghent, edited by M. Eolin Jacquemyns. 

The decisions of the English courts, as well as our own, are re- 
plete with references to Lawrence's Wheaton, particularly in the 
C£ises to which our civil war gave rise. It is also the authority 
for questions of international law in the British Parliament 
and American Congress, as well as in diplomatic correspond- 
ence. Indeed, it may with truth be said that no book on kindred 
subjects has appeared in Europe, since the publication of Mr. 
Lawrence's treatises, which does not contain citations either from 
the American work or from the French Commenfaire. Edward 
Everett reviewing, in the North American, the first edition, declares 
that " Mr. Lawrence has discharged the office of editor and com- 
mentator with signal fidelity, intelligence, and success. He not 
only shows himself familiar M'ith the subject as treated in the 
pages of his anthor, but also well acquainted with the entire litera- 
ture of the law of nations. Whatever is furnished by the English 
and Continental writers who have succeeded Mr. Wheaton — by 
Pliillimore, Wildman, Manning, Reddie, and Poison ; by Ortolan, 
Hautefeuille, and Fcelix — is judiciously drawn upon by Mr. Law- 
rence. The diplomacy and legislation of our own and foreign 
countries are carefully examined and, in short, the work is made 
in his hands — we think it not too much to say — what its lamented 
author would have made it, had he lived to the present time." 
{North American Review, January, 1856, p. 32.) 

As in the case of the editions in English, the entire money re- 
ceived from Brockhauswas paid to the family of Mr. Wheaton, while 
the expenses of preparing the work, amounting to many thousands 
of dollars, were incurred exclusively ])y Mr. Lawrence. It must, 
therefore, have been with no little surprise that, while his wlwle 
778 



WILLIAM BEACH LAWRENCE. H 

time was absorbed in the Commeniaire, he learned of the publi- 
cation of an edition of the "Elements," by a person who, having 
acquired some little reputation in early life as the author of a 
sea romance, then filled the office of United States District Attor- 
ney for Massachusetts. Though Mr. Dana declared in his prefiice, 
that " the notes of Mr. Lawrence do not form any part of this [his] 
edition," a judicial investigation has established that, with few ex- 
ceptions, the work is made up exclusively from Mr. Lawrence's. 
No better vindication of the high character of Mr. Lawrence's an- 
notations could be afforded than is given in the opinion of the Cir- 
cuit Court of the United States for Massachusetts, in the case of 
Lawrence vs. Dana, which is a leading case in the law of copy- 
right : " Such a comprehensive collection of authorities, explanations, 
and well-considered suggestions, is nowhere," said the presiding 
judge (Clifford), " in the judgment of the court, to be found in our 



" Allibone's Dictionary of British and American Authors" con- 
tains a list of Mr. Lawrence's writings anterior to 1856, but several 
important publications from his pen have since appeared. Among 
them was a work, under the title of "Visitation and Search in 
Time of Peace," induced by the revival in 1858, in the Gulf of 
Mexico, of the British pretensions to visit the merchant vessels of 
other nations, under pretext of suppressing the African slave 
trade. A pamphlet published in Paris in French, in 1860, under 
the title of " L'industrie frangaise et Vesclavage des negres aux 
Etats Unis" explained the connection which existed between the 
manufactures of Europe and the system of labor then prevalent 
in the United States. The volumes of the transactions of the 
British Social Science Association, beginning with 1861, — as also 
the London Law Magazine, — contain numerous papers from Mr. 
Lawrence's pen on questions of international law, several of 
which, including the affair of the Trent, grew out of our civil war. 
In the latter periodical, as well as in the Revue de Droit Lnter- 
national, are elaborate studies by him, on the comparative legis- 
779 



12 WILLIAM BKACn LAWRENCE. 

lation of different countries, respecting tlie law of marriapie and 
the riglits of property of married women, which are particiilarly 
commended in the Revve hlhliogrnj^hiqMe of the great work of 
Dalloz {^^ Jurisprwh'HCc (jejierale") 

In the interval between the two editions of '' Lawrence's Whea- 
ton," Mr. Lawrence visited Europe making the pei"sonal acquain- 
tance of the great masters of the science of international law, 
several of whom had recognized the valne of his annotations. 
The present judge of the High Court of Admiralty, Sir Robert 
Phillimore, makes copious citations in his " Commentaries upon 
International Law," from the first edition, as does Mr. "Westlake 
in his "Private International Law." The Queen's Advocate, Sir 
Travers Twiss, in the preface to his second volume of " The Law 
of Ifations," says: ""Wliile the present volume has been passing 
through the press, the second annotated edition of '"Wlieaton's 
Elements of International Law' has appeared from the pen of 
Mr. William Beach Lawrence, enriched with copious notes by its 
learned editor, bearing upon topics growing out of the pending hos- 
tilities on the American continent. Mr, Lawrence has discussed 
several of the leading questions which have arisen between the 
United States and Great Britain, with the moderation and impar- 
tiality which was to be expected from a publicist who unites the 
practical experience of a diplomatist with an enlarged theoretical 
knowledge of his subject.'' Ortolan, in his " Diplomatic de la 
m^y," bears testimony equally strong to the value of Mr. Lawrence's 
annotations; while they are referred to in almost every page of 
the edition of " Kent's Commentary," annotated by Dr. Abdy, of 
the University of Cambridge, England. Professor Bai-nard, of the 
University of Oxford, in his latest book, "Neutrality of Great 
Britain during the American Civil War," recognizes as the high- 
est authorities on international law, the "Elements" and the 
" Commeniaire." 

In a subsequent residence abroad, Mr. Lawrence not only re- 
vived old literary associations, but at the Social Science Congress, 
780 



WILLIAM BEACH LAWRP^NCE. 13 

held at Bristol, England, in October, 1869, he was received as an 
honored member, whose contributions had been long appreciated. 
At Berlin his recognition by Hefter and von Holtzendorf and their 
eminent confreres was equally satisfactory, while he was also fa- 
vored by a personal interview with Count Bismarck, when that 
eminent statesman, after expressing his apprecintion of Mr. Law- 
rence's annotations, with which he declared himself well acquainted, 
said that he had made frequent use of them in the preparation of 
his diplomatic notes. 

Mr. Lawrence's Cummentaire was not only commended by the 
•' Institute," but it introduced him to the notice of several of its 
most eminent members, among whom, besides Guizot, whom he 
had known from an early day, were Drouyn de Lhuj's, so long Min- 
ister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister President of the Council of 
State, M. de Parieu, Michel Chevalier, Charles Giraud, Franck, 
Cauchy, and Laboulaye. 

An article in the Memorial Diplomatique, from which we ex- 
tract the following passages, has the well-known signature of 
Pradier Fodere, the translator and commentator of Grotius and 
the commentator of Vattel. 



" To follow the chain of events and to bring down the work of Wheaton, it was 
necessary that a man should be found intelligent and laborious, alike versed in the 
practice and theory of the law of nations. By the high political positions which he 
had occupied, and by his personal aptitude for treating questions of internation?! law, 
Mr. Wm. Beach Lawrence seemed suited for the accomplishment of this saiontific mission. 
To a similarity of social position and purs\iits, were moreover added the bonds of a 
strict friendship. The friend of Wheaton, Mr. Lawrence has continued the scientific 
enterprise of his competitor in the law of nations, and his colleague in diplomacy. 

" Mr. Lawrence has thoroughly studiel contemporaneous history. Initiated by his 
political relations in all the public affairs of iiis time, an indefatigable reader, and an 
attentive observer, be has put in requisition all these resources, in order to omit no 
historical detail that can throw any light upon the events of the last twenty years. 
He has consulted and examined tlie memoirs of all the statesmen of our epoch — he has 
read all the monographs, he has perused all the reviews, ho has annotated all the dip- 
lomatic papers attentively, studied all the historical works, amassed treasures of erudi- 
tion, and contributed all this scientific booty to the completion of the less elaborated 
treatises of Wheaton. 

"Mr. Lawrence is not only an enlightened commentator, but he is most worthy to 
continue the work of his illu.^trious friend, whoso example he has followed in publish- 

781 



14 WIM. lAM UKACH I.AWHKNCE. 

ing his book in tlic diplomatic luMgiiage of Eiiropo — that is to say, in the French 
language. 

" The first vohimo contains what the author calls the historical part, and includes a 
rapid view of the principal events which have occurred in Kurope since the Peace of 
Westphalia. Mr. Lawrence has traced in the second volume the diplomatic history 
of the cases of intervention since the Congress of Vienna in 1815. He has studied 
most of the historical tacts in the official documents, whicli gives to this volume the 
character and merit of an actual course of contemporary history. The following vol- 
luues will treat of the subjects connected with private international law, questions 
relating to tlie equality of states, the rights of property, rights of legation, negotiations 
and treaties, and the respective rights and obligations of states in their hostile rela- 
tions. The whole will form a complete treatise of diplomacy of the utmost value to 
statesmen, and to all who take any interest in international affairs." — Memorial Diplo. 
matique, 1869, p. 110. 

While in Europe Mr. Lawrence received from the uuiversitj of 
his own State (Brown University) a diploma of the degree of 
Doctor of Laws, and in 1S69 was chosen, in addition to many simi- 
lar recognitions of his literary standing, an honorary vice-president 
of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia. It 
is in this last connection that a notice of his life may not inajipro- 
priafely fall within the functions of its historiographer. 

In the politics of his country, distinct from mere pereonal or 
partisan contests, Mr. Lawrence ever took a deep interest, and 
there are few important points of constitutional law, which he has 
not discussed, as well in their appropriate places in his elaborate 
treatises, as in the daily journals and other periodicals. 

To the principles of the Democratic party, as he had learned 
them from Jefferson and Madison, he steadfastly adliered, and he was 
repeatedly a member of the national conventions of his party for 
the nomination of the President. In Bartlett's " Literature of the 
Rebellion," p. 228, is a list of several papers from the pen of Mr. 
Lawrence, having for their object to avert the fratricidal contest, 
lie held tliat the Constitution could not be amended, much less 
abrogated, except in the form prescribed in the instrument itself, 
thereby excluding the right of secession as it also excludes the rev- 
olutionary reorganization of the States. He ever fondly cherished 
the hope that b}- confining the Federal government to its appro- 
priate functions as detined bv the Constitution, and leaving to the 
782 



WILLIAM BEACH LAWRENCE. 15 

States the exclusive internal adiniuisti'ation, our Union might be 
indefinitely extended. "With many eminent European publicists, 
he looked upon the settlement of conflicting differences that might 
arise under the Constitution, between States as in the case of indi- 
viduals, by judicial process, as the solution of the greatest of political 
problems. Nor was it till President Lincoln, in his inaugural 
address, denied to the Supreme Court any other power than 
that of determining matters of ordinary litigation between indi- 
viduals, that he realized the fact that no written constitution 
could be of any avail to avert civil war, or to maintain in 
their appropriate sjilieres the conflicting powers of our complex 
system. 

A firm believer in the autonomy of the States as dating from 
the first settlement of the country, lie could not admit that a sys- 
tem which had survived our colonial dependence, and was wholly 
unaffected by the transition from the articles of confederation to 
the Constitution of 1789, could be jeoparded by the breaking oiit 
of insurrection or civil war in any portion of the States, or by any 
other circumstance concerning the general government. He regarded 
the proposed convention of the 18th of A])ril, 18C5, between General 
Sherman and General Johnston, the Confederate commander, which 
provided for the recognition of the status of the States as it existed 
before the war, as the only arrangement consistent with either con- 
stitutional or international law. The systems of reorganization 
subsequently attempted, whether that proposed by President 
Johnson, or those established by various acts of Congress, he con- 
sidered as alike unwarranted by the Federal Constitution, and revo- 
lutionary. Even if the State constitutions were abrogated by the 
war, it was not for the President or the Federal legislature, he con- 
tended, to provide for new organic laws. That right belonged ex- 
clusively to the whole people of the respective States, including as 
well the affranchised slaves, if they were to be deemed citizens, as 
those who had been engaged in the civil war, and who, on the 
principle of the law of nations, required no amnesty or pardon for 
30 783 



10 W 1 I. 1, 1 .\ M lU'AOll I.AWRENCK. 

obeying a rcgiihiv J<' fuciv govonunont. {Commentairi', etc., yo\. 
II.,'p. I(i2.) 

Mr. Linvroucc, at\or a recent absence of a couple of years in 
Europe, has returned to his library, wliich he has been accumu- 
lating for half a century, and which contains the best collections 
of works in his specialty, in German, Spanish, and Italian, as well 
OS in Knglisli and French, to be found in any library, public or 
private, in this country. No other place can atlbrd greater facili- 
ties for the completion of his great work. 

Mr. Lawrence W!\s married, early in life, to a daughter of Archi- 
bald Gracie, an eminent merchant of New York. !N[i-s. Lawrence 
accompanied her husband to Europe during his fti"st two visits 
there, and died in 1S58, leaving several children, one of whom 
General Albert Gallatin Lawrence, forms the subject of another 
notice Ju this work. 

7S4 



JOHN WELLS rc)si^!<:i{. 

BY F. HICNUY GUKKR. 

r^>*OHN WELLS FOS'J'KIl was born at PotcrBtroam, Wor- 
^^F* '^^'^^^'' ^-''f^'"if.y> ManBachuKettK, Marcli 4, 1815. IIIh fatlier, 
■^^»» Festus Foster, at tliat time was the Unitarian clergy- 
man of tlic village, — a man of strong and vigorous intellect, who 
had decided convictions upon every question of public policy, which 
he failed not to express on suitable occasions. 

His mother was a Wells, connected with one of the oldest and 
most respected families in the Connecticut Valley. When the 
child was but four years old, his parents moved t.o Brimfield, Tlainp- 
den County, Massachusetts, where his early youth was passed, and 
where his mind received its first impressions of external nature. 

Brimfield is one of those quiet villages, nestled among the hills 
of New England, which at once arrest the eye of the tourist, and 
with its neatly jjainted houses lends a peculiar charm to the land- 
scape. These villages have served as the nurseries of men who 
have gone out into the active world and impressed their ideas upon 
the age. The society is generally sober and sedate, and all stand 
upon a general equality. It is here we find democracy practically 
exemplified. In such a community, and amid such surroundings, 
he passed his early youth, attending the village school, and assist- 
ing in the cultivation of a small farm to which his father had 
retired. He early evinced an ardent love for external nature. 
With gun or rod, he explored every forest and stream in the vicinity, 
and extended his excursions to the neighboring towns. The beet- 
ling cliff; the leaping waterfall, or the somber wood had for him 
peculiar attractions, and anjid such scenes he would linger until 
the falling shadows of night would warn him fo depai-t. In this 



2 JOHN WELLS FOSTER. 

free exercise in the open air he laid the foundation of a robust 
constitution which he has retained throughout life. 

At the age of twelve he was sent to an academy in a neighboring 
town where he was fitted for college. In the fall of 1831, he 
entered the Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Connecticut, at 
that time just inaugurated under the presidency of Dr. "Wilbur 
Fiske, — a man whose memoi'y is reverenced by every one who came 
within the sphere of his influence. Here he passed four years of 
collegiate life. In classical literature he was a proficient, and the 
training thus received has had an impress upon his whole subse- 
quent career. For the higher branches of mathematics he con- 
ceived so strong an aversion, that he consented to forego his degree 
rather than submit to the usual course of study in this department. 
Trofessor Pierce, the Superintendent of the United States Coast 
Survey, -^ho was educated as a geometer, and believes that geom- 
etry is the key of the sciences, relates that more than once he tried 
to communicate to Agassiz some conception of algebraic analysis 
and its modes of research. " Whether," says he, " the fault was 
in the obscurity of the teacher, or the too great density of the 
pupil's brain, my excess of modesty dares not decide. Whatever 
was the cause, my attempt was a total failure : I could not bring 
my friend to comprehend the product of two by two, when both 
the twos were negative, and I am firmly convinced that he would 
have rather yielded his fine teeth to the dentist, than his radical 
and absurd repugnance to the extraction of an impossible root." 
This incident shows the absurdity of our American college edu- 
cation. Here is a man who has made his name illustrious through- 
out the world by reason of his scientific researches, who couhl not 
have passed a satisfactory examination in what so many regard as 
the " Key of the Sciences." Our system of college education is 
based on the supposition of the want of diversity in the human 
mind. The curriculum of studies through which the pupil is put 
is expected to operate with all the precision and certainty of 
machinery. So that a giveu number of minds thus manipulated 
786 



JOHN WELLS FOSTER. 3 

would exhibit no greater diversities than a given munlier of horse- 
shoes turned out at the Burden works. Hence the intellectual 
culture received at the American colleges reminds one of the 
monotony of a Dutch garden, where every tree is precisely like 
another, and all are trimmed into symmetrical forms. Every 
branch whicli would start out with a robust growth, is lopped by 
the remorseless pruning-knife. When will educators become im- 
pressed with the fact of the almost infinite diversity of the human 
mind, and educate men in reference thereto? 

In the natural sciences, however, particularly geology and 
mineralogy, Mr. Foster evinced the deepest interest, and in Pro- 
fessor William W. Mather, then lately transferred from West 
Point, he found an instructor well fitted to direct his course. Be- 
tween the two there soon sprang up a warm personal friendship, 
which remained a lasting one and led to the most intimate business 
relations. 

The pupil, not content with studying mere cabinet specimens, 
sought them as they occur in nature, and with this view made 
excursions in every direction into the surrounding regions. In his 
zeal he digested the American localities of minerals described in 
the earlier volumes of Silliman's Journal, and appended the infor- 
mation in the form of notes to a copy of " Cleveland's Mineralogy," 
at that time regarded as the standard. "Bakewell's Geology" 
was similarly annotated. 

After leaving college, he read law for a year in Xew England, 
when he transferred his residence to Zanesville, Ohio, and resumed 
his law studies in the office of Goddard & Convers, and in due 
time was admitted to the bar. These gentlemen, who ranked de- 
servedly high in their profession, treated him with unvarying kind- 
ness throughout their subsequent lives, and he mourns them dead as 
the best of counselors and friends. 

Here he found himself in a new region. His early life had 
been passed in the midst of rocks which were metamorphosed and 
plicated, and in which all traces of organic forms were obliterated. 
7S7 



4 JOHN WKLLS POSTKR. 

Uere, however, be fouiul the roeks spread out in gently-undulating 
strata, and stored with organic remains as delicately preserved as 
though the forms had perished but yesterday. In the Putnam 
Ilill, overlooking the Muskingum Valley, he found a bed of strata 
of a light cream color, which was peculiarly rich in coal-plants. 
Upon this light-colored ground-work, in india-ink tints, nature bad 
delineated the most delicate and elaborate representations of the 
carboniferous foliage in a manner which detied the nicest touches, 
guided by a skillful hand, of a camel's-hair brush. He at once 
made large collections of these extinct plants, and made drawings 
of them all. Procuring from that veteran observer of Western 
geology — Dr. llildreth, of Miirietta, Oliio — the works of Brong- 
niiU-V and " Lindley and Ilutton on Fossil BotaTiy," he proceeded to 
arrange his collection into genera and species so far as determined ; 
but afterwiird, when his friend Dr. Newberry proposed to describe 
the coal-plaats of Ohio, he passed over his notes to that eminent 
botanist. 

In the Zanesville Athenieum he found the fragment of the lower 
jaw of an immense extinct rodent, which had been disinterred from 
a peat swamp near Nashport, in excavating the Ohio Canal. Com- 
paring its jaws with that of the modern beaver, he inferred that 
it must have exceeded the latter at least fourfold, and to this fossil 
he gave the name of Castoroide^ O/iioeiisJu. Since then several 
perfect specimens have been found, by which the analogies of this 
animixl have been clearly determined. 

In 1S37 the geological survey of the State of Ohio was insti- 
tuted, and Professor Mather was called to the directoi-ship. He 
was not unmindful of his former pupil, but assigned him to a 
position under Mr. Briggs, who was directed to explore the geology 
of the southern part of tiie State, particularly in reference to the 
economical vidue of the coal and iron ores. The next year he was 
assigned to an independent district embracing the central portion 
of the State, and his report embraces a detailed section, extending 
from the corniferous limestone near Columbus to the uppermost 
7SS 



.TOHN wi;li,h KOSTKK. 5 

Led of coal near Wlieelirif^. Tliis was the first section ever nna<]e 
Uiroiigl) the Ohio coal-field. At that day the vagiiect notions 
j)revailed in reference to geological equivalents. Miirchison's 
"Silurian System" had but lately been promulgated, and had 
not been studied. Rocks were classified under the vague divisions 
of primary, transition, secondary, and tertiary. The Grauwacke 
group figured prominently in all elementary treatises, and the 
term Mountain Limestone was applied almost indifferently to any 
mass of that material found beneath the coal-bearing rocks. While 
the detailed work of this report will probably stand the test of 
time, the author himself attaches little value to the scientific specu- 
lations. The Ohio Survey, a work which ought long ago to have 
been executed, but which is now resumed under favoral>le auspices, 
was unfortunately sacrificed by reason of political comjdications, 
and the subject of this memoir was compelled to resort to the prac- 
tice of a profiession for which he had no great love 

In 1839 he figured in Silliman's Jmrnal the first perfect skull 
of the MdHtodon giga/ntem ever discovered. 

In 184.5, on the breaking out of the Copper excitement on the 
southern shore of Lake Superior, he visited that region in the inter- 
est of several mining companies, and repeated the visit the year 
subsequently. In 1847 the government instituted a geological sur- 
vey of this public domain, and Dr. Jackson was appointed the 
director. Messrs. Foster and "Whitney became assistants, and two 
years subsequently the completion of the work was confided to them. 
In 1850 appeared the first volume of their report, which was con- 
fined to the Copper region. Appended thereto were two elaborate 
maps, on which the boundaries of the intercalated traps and con- 
glomerates were delineated ; and, when it is considered that at that 
time the region was almost an unbroken wilderness, and that the 
provisions and camp equipage of the parties had to be packed upon 
the backs of men, the general accuracy of this work is a matter of 
surprise. Subsequent explorations, with all the facilities of roads 
and innumerable shafts, have but slightly modified the boundaries 
789 



6 JOHN WK I.I,S FOSTKR. 

as orifjinally given. In tins work they were assisted liv Mr. S. W. 
Jlill, so well known throughout that region as a mining engineer, 
and Professor Edward Desor, of Neufehatel, Switzerland, who now 
ranks among the foreun»st of the anthrojxilogists of Europe. So 
great was the interest abroad in this mining region, that an abstract 
of this work was translated into German and French. 

In 1851 appeared the second volume of their report, relating to 
the Iron region and the general geology. In this work they had 
the co-operation of James Hall, LL. D., of New York, so far as re- 
lates to the palivozoic series ; and Colonel Whittlesey, of Ohio, con- 
tributed a chapter " On the Observed Fluctuations of the Surfaces of 
the Lakes." While the economic materials — the vast masses of 
specular and magnetic iron ores which are here so magnificently 
displayed, and whose development has since contributed so much to 
the national industry — are minutely described, the scientific results 
are of a high character. Perhaps the most important generalization, 
and which has since been univei-sally recognized, was the determi- 
nation of a class of rocks which formed the ancient crust of the 
earth beneath the oldest member of the Silurian system. This 
group has been so far transformed by direct or transmitted heat as 
to convert sandstone into massive quartz, limestone into saccha- 
roidal marble, and shale into crystalline schist. "Between the two 
systems," say they, " there is a clear and well-defined line of demar- 
kation. It forms one of those great epochs in the history of the 
earth, where the geologist can pause and satisfy himself of the 
correctness of his conclusions. On the one hand he sees evidence 
of intense and long-continued igneous action ; on the other of com- 
parative tranquillity and repose." 

This system, which is well developed in Canada, has been sub- 
divided by the Canadian geologists into the Lanrentian and Hnro- 
nian groups. The original investigators supposed the whole mass 
to be Azoic, but Dr. Dawson found, in the Lanrentian, traces of the 
humblest type of organic life, belonging to the family of RMsopods, 
which he named Eosoon Cutnuftn^'?. 
790 



JOHN WKLLS FOSTKE. /• 

Dr. Foster first called attention to this class of rock's as far back 
as September, 1848, in a communication published in the Report of 
the Commissioner of the General Land Office. In the joint commu- 
nication of Foster and Whitney to the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science (Cincinnati meeting, 1851), they de- 
scribe these old series as constituting the primeval continent wl.icli 
rose not more than a thousand feet above the Silurian ocean, and 
stretched almost uninterruptedly from Labrador to the sources of 
the Mississippi, and even beyond. Agassiz, at the close of the com- 
mnnication, rose and declared that this was among the grandest 
generalizations that bad been made in American geology. In the 
final report on this region, the facts upon which this gener^i^ation 
is based are set forth more in detail. 

Dr. Foster, having passed the greater portion of his active life in 
the Mississippi Valley, and having been a witness of the gigantic 
strides which the region had made in wealth and population, ex- 
pressed a desire to embody his observations'in a permanent form. 
Messrs. Griggs & Co., of Chicago, at once stepped forward and 
ofiered him all the facilities for carrying out his wish, and, accord- 
ingly, in 1869, he brought out a work entitled " The Mississippi 
Valley : its Physical Geography, including Sketches of the To 
pography, Botan^', Geology, and Mineral Resources, and of the 
Progress of Development and Material Wealth." The title in- 
dicates the contents of the volume, and we may say that all the 
great questions relating to the physical geography of the region are 
thoroughly and philosophically discussed. The work was received 
with high commendation both at home and abroad.* 

* Out of the many notices of this book we seJect, at random, a few, as follows — 
"Tms work embodies a vast fund of information, and we believe is tbe best of the- 
kmd ever published. It is the result of profound study, and close observation of 
natural phenomena. The style is clear, terse, and often eloquent, and the graphic de- 
scnptions of natural scenery relieve the work of the tedium of mere scientific detail 
The gre.it features of this region are sketched with a bold hand. It is as if a panorama 
were unrolled before us. Such a book will prove invalu.-.ble, not simply to the student 
o( geography, but to every one who would acquire a just knowledge of the r.sourt-es of 
th.s region, which has already Ix-crjme f.e heart of the Kepubl.c.'-airy^^o f{>y,uUirM,L 

791 



8 JOHN WELLS FOSTER. 

After the coiiii>letiou of this work Dr. Foster made, leisurely, a 
tour through the Gulf States, preparatory to joining Senator Kusk, 
of Texas, to explore the sources of the Wishetaw, but the Ca- 
uianches had manifested so hostile a spirit that the expedition was 
abandoned. Between that time and the present he has acted as a 
mining engineer and geologist in developing the mineral resources 
of the country ; and in the prosecution of his profession he has been 
called upon to visit distant and widely-sepai-ated regions. In 1856 
he reported iipon the coals tributary to the Illinois Central Rivil- 
road, and in tracing out their peculijirities, he has extended his ob- 
servations into the coal-fields of Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, 
and Kansas ; and at this time he is engaged in a project to bring 
into intimate union the block coals of Indiana and the iron ores of 
Lake Superior. He is the author of several reports on the lead ores 
of "Wisconsin and Missouri, and was the tirst to discover the power- 
ful zinc veins of the Ozark Mountains. In 1865 lie published a 
somewhat elaborate report on the geology and metallurgy of the 
Lake Superior iron ores. He has investigated the great questions 
of internal communication, and is the author of the report " on the 
necessity of a ship canal between the East and the West," sub- 
nutted to the National Ship-Canal Convention which assembled at 
Chicago, June 2, 1S63. These various pamphlets, — all relating to 
the economic resources of the country, — if collected together, would 
form several volumes. 

Dr. Foster has devoted much study to ethnography, and in Part 

'■ Taken all iu all it is the most crediuible ViiUinie Chicago has ever proJuced. There 
is nothing ephemeral or local in its value. It is exhaustive in the treatment of a subject 
alike interesting to the student of abstract science, the statesman, and the business-man 
of enlarged views. ... It may be called the culmination or fruitage of the grand 
lifo-work of a man whose industry has only been surpassed by the peculiar adaptation 
of his genius to such a task." — Chicago Evming Journal. 

" In comprehensiveness, in clearness of argument, and in the power of making plain 
to the unlearned reader the truths of physical science, this work leaves little to bo 
desired. The author has gone no further beyond his subject than was required for tlic 
illustrations which were required by analogous facts in other parts of the world. . . . 
There is a positive need for such a work since the area of observation has been so 
suddenly and widely expanded." — Xew York Tribune. 

792 



JOHN WELLS FOSTKK. £ 

11. Of Vol. I. of the "Transactions of the Chicago Academy of 
Science will be found an elaborate review of all the facts bearing, 
on the antiquity of man in North America. This memoir is illu^ 
trated by numerous plates. In "The Arts" he has given a 
series of papers on the « Crania of the Mound-Builders," illustrated 
by numerous outlines, which show that that race were low in the 
scale of intellectual development. He has been intimately con- 
nected with the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science since its origin, and in its proceedings are contained 
several ofh.B papers. He was elected President of the Eighteenth 
Meeting, held at Salem, August, ISm, and in his opening address 
he paid brief but feeling tribute to the memory of the deceased 
members of the Association of American Geologists which con- 
vened at Philadelphia in 1840, and out of which grew the Ameri- 
can Association for the Advancement of Science. In his address 
as the retiring President, delivered at Troy, August, 1870 he re^ 
viewed the facts bearing on the great cycles of heat and cold which 
have characterised the pa.st physical history of the globe, and traced 
their effects in modifying organic forms, both animal and vegetable 
and showed how far man himself had been the subject of these' 
changes. In seeking for a solution of these phenomena, he would 
not resort to a different distribution of land and water, and of 
oceanic currents, or to a variable intensity of heat transmitted from 
the interior of the earth ; but believed that it would be found in 
astronomical causes, in the operation of some great kw, rec.ular 
m Its irregularities, such as the precession of the equinoxes°com- 
bmed with the movement of the apsides. 

Dr. Foster is an active or corresponding member of many of the 
most prominent scientific societies of the country, and amon-. 
others, wa. elected as a member of the Geographical Society of 
France. In 1808 the University of Chicago, in recognition of his 
scientific attainments, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of 
Laws. At the centennial celebration of the anniversary of Hum- 
boldt's birth, the Dubuque Natural History Society selected him to 
7'J3 



10 JOHN WKI.I.S FOSTER. 

ileliver the eulogy, — a tlieiue wliieli was iu full accord with tlie 
orator's tastes aud pureuits. For the past twelve jeare he has 
heeu a resident of Chicago, and while an active laborer in building 
up the Chicago Academy of Science, he is ever ready to aid with 
his pen and voice those great projects which tend to the material 
prosperity of the Northwest. lie has thoroughly studied its re- 
sources, and takes a deep interest in their development. 

Perhaps there is not a member of the American Association who, 
in rising to speak, commands to so great an extent the undivided 
attention of that body, the most critical that can be gathered in 
the United States, as Dr. Foster. Ilis deportment is grave, and at 
first his delivery is slow ; and yet there is no hesitancy as to the 
precise word to express bis meaning. As he proceeds he becomes 
animated, and by the force of his imagination he invests the driest 
subject with the charms of novelty. There is a freshness and anima- 
tion which characterize his descriptioTis of natural phenomena, 
which might well be practiced by scientists. He evidently has 
adopted the ideas of Humboldt, that " Xature is a free domain, 
and the profound conceptions and enjoyments she awakens within 
us can only be vividly delineated by thought clothed iu exalted 
forms of speech worthy of bearing witness to the majesty and great- 
ness of creation." In listening to a single speech one might infer 
that it was elaborately planned — that every sentence and even 
every word was deliberately weighed ; but when, as the presiding 
officer of the Salem meeting, we find him in the morning respond- 
ing to the welcoming address of the local authorities ; in the after- 
noon participating in the ceremonies of the dedication of the Pea- 
body Academy of Science ; in the evening replying to the Address 
of the President of the Board of Trade ; and the next day, perhajis, 
delivering a geological lecture at a field-meeting of the Essex 
Institute, — one must discard this idea, and accord to Dr. Foster 
great versatility of speech. 

794 



JOHN ELLIOT!^ WARD. 



1^ 
,||f HE suliject of tlie present sketcli was Tjorn October 2, 1814, 

■=^"^1 ^" Sunbury, Liberty County, Georgia. His fatlier, Williara 
^ ^ Ward, an entei-prising young man from North Carolina, 
was attracted to Georgia by the promise its fertile lands presented 
to the agriculturist, and retained there by the attachments of friend- 
ship and the endearments of home. His mother, Sara Anne 
Mcintosh, was grand-niece of General Lachlan Mcintosh, of 
Revolutionary memory. Her father. Major Lachlan Mcintosh, 
though already a practicing lawyer when the Eevolution opened, 
entered the army at the first summons of his native State, and, 
having passed as a soldier through all the trying scenes of our 
contest for liberty, returned to the practice of his y>rofession when 
peace was declared. He attained a high reputation as a lawyer, 
but was still more widely known and more highly esteemed for his 
conversational powers, which were so effectis'e that it became a 
current saying among his contemporaries, that should Major 
Mcintosh enter a company of strangers, dressed in "Osnaburg," — a 
coarse, hempen fabric used only by the poorest class of laboring 
men, — he would become the object of chief attention before an hour 
had passed. Those who know his distinguished grandson will 
admit that he has inherited no small portion of this enviable 
talent. 

Sunbnry is now scarcely more than a name ; but in Mr. "Ward's 
childhood, though it had even then lost the trade it had enjoyed in 
earlier days, and was consequently greatly diminished in popula- 
tion, it still boasted an academy so well conducted that it drew to 
it the youth from all parts of Georgia. Here Mr. Ward began his 
70a 



2 JOHN ELLIOTT WARD. 

career as a student. From the begiuniug lie gave indications of 
tlie talents and tiic activity of mind to which success seems to 
belong as a right. To these he added, in a remarkable degree, the 
endowments of voice and manner which make the orator. His 
tirst misfortune was the early death of his parents, which left him 
at sixteen to the guardianship of those who were too careless or 
too indulgent to check the eager boy in the rapid race to which he 
was incited by a spirit ambitious of the to(/(i virilis, witii its responsi- 
bilities, and what probably seemed to him its certain honors. 

Mr. Ward entered Amherst College in 1S31, and after only two 
years of study there, during wliich ho fully sustained his former 
character for scholarship, he left that college at his own desire, to 
enter on the study of the law. In January, 1833, he began his 
professional studies in the otiice of the lion. A[. ITall McAllister, 
afterwards Judge of the United States Circuit Court of California. 
Judge McAllister Wivs distinguished not only by high attainment 
in his profession, but also by such genial manners and such brilliant 
wit as gave him great social influence. With him, and with his 
lovely and accomplished wife, Mr. Ward maintained the most cor- 
dial and aftectionate relations to the end of their lives. 

Such was the assiduity with which Mr. Ward devoted himself to 
the study of his profession, that he was admitted to the bar in 
January, 1835, when little more than twenty, an act of the legis- 
lature authenticating his admission as a minor. Prompt to avail 
himself of every oj>portunity of improvement in his profession, he 
went to Cambridge in the May following, and attended for some 
months the lectures delivered at its law school by the erudite Judge 
Story. Returning to Savannah in the autumn, soon after he had 
attained his majorit}', he was almost immediately appointed by 
Governor Schley, Solicitor-General of the eastern district of the 
State of Georgia. Having held this office by the governor's 
appointment till the meeting of the Legislature in the autumn of 
1830, that body elected him to the same otliee, and thus tcstitiod to 
his satisfactory perfornumce of its duties. It was resigned by him 
7% 



JOHN ELLIOTT WARD. g 

in July, 1858, that he might enter into copartnersliip with the 
Hon.Eobert M. Charlton, who was judge of the highest court then 
established in Georgia. That Judge Charlton should resign so 
honorable a post for a partnership with the young solicitor, was the 
highest testimonial that could have been given to his ability and 
professional success. The connection so formed was cemented l>y 
the warmest personal friendship, and continued unbroken for six- 
teen years, or till 1854, when it was at last dissolved by the death 
of Judge Charlton. Soon after he had entered on this partnership, 
Mr. Ward became, by the appointment of Mr. Yan Buren, District 
Attorney of the United States, for Georgia. 

While life opened thus brightly upon the subject of our sketch, 
in the sphere of his i^rofessional labors, it wore no clouded aspect 
elsewhere. Society, which so often capriciously refuses her favors 
to men of the highest endowments, smiled graciously on him. 
During his attendance on the law school at Cambridge, Mr. Ward 
had been admitted to the pleasant intercourse of some of the most 
agreeable coteries of Boston. Among these there was none more 
valuable to him for its social prestige, and its intellectual and artistic 
culture, than that which he met in the house of the lion. William 
Sullivan. None who knew the charm of this circle will be sur- 
prised that it should have made more than a passing impression 
upon him, or that, when his position left him at liberty to follow 
the dictates of his heart, he should have sought and found a wife 
among the lovely daughters of this pleasant home. He was married 
August 15, 1839. 

Mr. Ward had hitherto resisted all the temj.tation to enter the 
arena of politics, which must, as he well knew, divert him, at least 
temporarily, from his professional career. His increasing popular- 
ity, however, made it more and more difficult for him to continue 
steadfast in this course, and in the autumn of 1839 he was per- 
suaded to accept a nomination as representative in the State Legis- 
lature, of that Union Democratic party which was beginning to feel 
the importance of its roU as equally the defender of the ri-hts of 
797 



4 JOHN KLLIOTT WARD. 

the States against the ceutralizing teudeucies of certain political 
leadei-s, and of the constitutional rights of the Federal government 
against the unreasoning assaults of others. That he discharged 
with fidelity the trust thus committed to him may be inferred from 
the fact that whenever, in the stirring times that followed, a clear 
mind and strong heart were peculiarly needed in the conflict of par- 
ties in the State, Mr. "Ward was sent to the Legislature. This 
occurred in 1815, and again in 1854. This last period was one 
when parties were bitterly opposed, and the influence of a calm 
temper and sound judgment were more than ever requisite in our 
national councils. That Mr. Ward was chosen, under such circum- 
stances, Speaker of the House of Representatives, seems to indicate 
that he had already acquired, in his native State, a respect and 
confidence not often bestowed on so young a man. 

That, in the acceptance of these appointments, Mr. Ward was 
actuated chiefly, if not solely, by a conscientious recognition of his 
duty to his country, seems manifest from an incident that occurred 
in 1852. Judge Berrien had been elected in 1847 senator from 
Georgia to the Congress of the United States. His term of service 
did not expire till the 4th of March, 1853 ; but, urged by domestic 
reasons, he resigned his seat in May, 1852. As the Legislature was 
not then in session, the duty of appointing Judge Berrien's suc- 
cessor devolved on the Hon. Howell Oobb, then Governor of 
Georgia. He lost no time in tendering the appointment to Mr. 
Ward, who, with a modesty too rare in the history of our public 
men, declined it, suggesting his senior partner, Judge Charlton, as 
the man in all the State best fitted for the post. Governor Cobb 
paid the compliment to Mr. Ward's judgment of immediately offer- 
ing the place to Judge Charlton, by whom it was accepted. 

In 1856 Mr. Ward presided over the convention that met at 
Cincinnati to appoint the Democratic candidate for President of 
the United States, and presided, we are told by some who were 
present, with a grave dignity that commanded univei-sal respect 
and admiration. In the autumn of the next year he was again 
798 



JOHN KLLIOTT WARD 

5 

sent to the State Legislature ; it was not now to the House of Ro,,- 
resentatives, but to the Senate, that he was elected, and that budy 
immediately voted hi.n into its presidential chair. A senator's 
term of service in Georgia is for two years, but Mr. Ward resigned 
his place as president of the Senate in November, 18.58, that ho 
might accept the mission to China, which had been pi-.^ffcrcd to him 
by President Buchanan. In accepting this mission Mr War.) 
could scarcely have failed to foresee the increasing value of Chin-i 
to the civilized world, and the consequent importance of establish" 
ing such relations with Pekin as would give to the United States 
her due mfluence, and to her citizens engaged in the Chinese trad- 
all the advantages enjoye<l by those of any other nation In fur- 
therance of these objects Mr. Ward made the first journey ever 
made by an American to Pekin, and accomplished by peaceable 
measures what the English and French ambassadors failed to do 
by force of arms. This is no place in which to give the history of 
that expedition, interesting as it would doubtless be. Should it 
ever be truly given, it will not, we are assured, lessen Mr Ward^s 
claims to public favor. That he fully satisfied his countrymen in 
China, the accompanying letter, addressed to him on the eve of hi.s 
departure from Shanghai, will abundantly testify :— 

[copy.] 

SiUNGHAi, November 11, 1859. 
To Hm ExceUency, the Honorable John B. "Waed, 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary 
of the United States of America : 
SiR,-Prior to your Excc-llency-a departure we, the undersigned, Americau merchants 
and residents of Shanghai, are desirous of expressing and pladng'on re" '"« n er^ 
TTT. '''^--«°- of y°- K-ellency in the ratification of our treaty L 
the establishment of our ne^v political relations with China 

We are aware of the difficulties which have arisen, and the obstacles against which 
you have had to contend, and we can thprf.fr.ro wr.i, tv,, „ i _.• 

„„ ,, <• , ' ^"^■^'''°re> ^^I'n the more heartmess congratulate 

you on the successful termination of this portion of your labors 

And further, as we review the few mouths which have cbpsed since your Excel- 
lency s first arnval, and the momentous events which have transpired, the dimcult and 

CO n rv 'nd h" "p" "t 'T """ "^^^ '''"''' """^ '"^ ^<'"""- »° "^ P"-- '^^ "'!« 
vou o on "'f '" '"'"°'''' "' '"'' «"^' P'^^«"" '" respectfully assurmg 

you of our unanimous and cordial support and approval f / uig 

799 



JOHN ELLIOTT WARD. 

Bepinnins witli yonr first conference with the Imperial Commissioners at S1iangh;ii 
down to tlie present moment, when our treaty is about to enter into actnal oporatioii, 
tliero is no act, no opinion, ol' your Excellency wliich does not command the assent of 
your countrymen. 

More partienlarly are we glad to express our profound appreciation of the course 
your Excellency pursued at the North; and while we do justice to llie moderation 
which ruled your counsels, we bear willing witness to the energy and ability which 
guided them to a successful issue. 

Your desire to co-opeiate with your colleagues of England and France in Iho common 
interests of all indicates the justice and soundness of your policy; while the inde- 
pendent course pursued by you under the pressure of subsequent events, we feel, was 
the only one consistent with the dignity of our government. 

Wo fully appreciate the motives which induced your Excellency to give your support 
to the generous assistance afforded by Commodore Tatnall to the English and Frencli 
forces after the disastrous action of Takee, and can not refrain from here expressing our 
admiration of that oflficer's gallantry. 

Your Excellency's visit to Pekin and the able and energetic manner in which you 
there supported the dignity of our country, the successful ratification of the treaty and 
its speedy promulgation, are events honorable alike to yourself and to us as your 
countrymen. 

We are pleased to understand that the present anomalous and unsatisfactory state of 
the Imperial customs has attracted your Excellency's attention, and that it is your 
intention to insist upon such alteration in their constitution as shall prevent any in- 
fringement of our treaty rights by their regulations. We deem this a matter of 
signal importance, but feel confident thai this and other complicated negotiations 
which remain for you to conduct will receive at your hands most able and judicious 
management. 

With our best wishes, we have the honor to be 

Your Excellency's most obedient servants, 

Augustine Heard & Co., W. Endicott, Henry Blodget, 

Wetmore, Williams & Co., P. W. Chenet, J. L. Holmes. 

Russell Sc Co., Abraham Honan, J. W. LAMUUTn, 

Isaac M. Bull & Co., E. C. Bridgman, W. G. E. Cunntngiiam, 

Oltphant & Co., . M. S. CULUERTSON, B. Jenkins, 

H. Fogg & Co., Cleveland Keith, J. B. Hartwelt^ 

Frazar & Co., Charles R. Mills, George W. Fish. 
John H. Everett, 

In 1861, on the accession of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, Mr. 
Ward resigned his mission, and, retnrning to Savannah, resnined 
liis practice. Believing, from his previous career, that his influence 
would have been exerted to preserve his native State from the war 
into which she had been plunged, we regret that he had not 
returned sooner. During the war, Mr. "Ward remained in Savan- 
nah, except when painful anxiety respecting his absent family 
800 



JOHN ELLIOTT WARD. * 

drove him to Europe. He would not divide liis interests from 
those of Georgia while she was in peril, but, at the end of the 
war, he withdrew from Savannah and made his homo in New 
York, where he has been warmly welcomed by many friends, and 
wliere he is now engaged in the successful and lucrative practit'C 
of the law. 

SOI 




^>-nMfi. 





GEI^ERAL OLIVER H. PALMER. 

BY J. ALEXANDER PATTEN. 

■N earnest activity, and success solely through personal 
effort, are the characteristics of the career of General 
Oliver H. Palmer, now treasurer of that great corporation, 
the Western Union Telegraph Company. His spheres of action 
have been widely different ; but in all of them he has shown mental 
and moral capabilities of the highest order. Self-reliant, con- 
scientious, energetic, and honorable, he has won his way to honors 
and emoluments, which aiford the best evidence of both his ability 
and character. 

He was born October 5, 1814, at "Walworth, Wayne County, 
Xew York, about twelve miles from the city of Eochester. His 
father, Nathan Palmer, was a native of Granville, Washington 
Coimty, New York ; and his mother, whose maiden name was 
Lamb, was a native of Welles, in the State of Yermont. In 
1806 his parents emigrated to Wayne County, then a far western 
region, and a vast wilderness, where they ever after resided. The 
tract of land selected was an immense forest of six hundred acres. 
All the personal efiects of the settlers had to be transported on 
horseback four miles into the forest, for the nearest settlement and 
wagon-road was that distance from the point of location. 

The subject of our notice first saw the light in one of the primi- 
tive log-houses of the times, and was brought up, after the manner 
of frontier farmers' sons, to the hardest work. He had slight com- 
mon-school advantages until he was sixteen years of age. After 
that, and until he was twenty-one, he worked on the farm dui-ing 
the summer, and taught school during the winter. From an early 
age he evinced a great desire to acquire an education, and at his 



2 OLIVKR H. TALMKR. 

lUiituritj luid fair attsiininents as an English scliolar. In tlae midst 
of this solitude of nature, and of the labor of the pioneer, he felt 
an earnest prompting to prepare himself for a wider scope of efforts 
in the future. In a statement referring to these early dajs, he 
says: '' After faithfully serving out my time, as we used to call it 
at home, I informed my father that I had determined to see if I 
could not contrive some way by which I could acquire a better 
education — that I proposed to do so without calling upon him for 
any aid — that I might want a few doUai-s to start with, but I 
thought I should be able to work my way, al^er a short time, and 
all that I wanted of him was his approbation." 

The tiret two yeare of his majority were passed at the Genesee 
"Wesleyan Seminary, at Lima, New York, where he soon procured 
a situation as tutor, and was thus enabled to pay his own way. 
He titted himself to enter the Sophomore class at Union College, biit 
circumstances occurred that nuxde it necessary, as a matter of duty, 
that he should remaiu, for a time at least, on the farm. In January, 
1S39, he entered the law office of Judge Theron R. Strong, of 
Palmyra. This gentleman's attention bad been especially attracted 
to young Palmer by his power exhibited in a debate on the slavery 
question, in the village meeting-house. He commenced study with 
his usual resolution in such matters. His plan was to read from 
tivo in the morning until nine a. m., attend to his business duties 
of the office until eight P. m., and then resume reading imtil eleven 
at night. This programme was faithfully carried out for two 
ycai-s. In July, 1S42, he was duly admitted to the bar as an 
attorney and coimselor of the Supreme Court, and as a solicitor 
and counselor in Chancery. Judge Strong took his seat in Con- 
gress in 1S39, and much of the responsibility of his extensive 
practice devolved upon Mr. Palmer, and in June, lSi4, he became 
an equ;\l partner in the business. He thus remained until October, 
ISM, when he removed to Rochester, and entered into pai-tnership 
with his brother-in-law, George II. Mumford, Esq. 

During 1S40 and 1841, in addition to the duties of professional 
ti04 



life, he was editor of the leading Democratic paper of tlie county, 
a weekly journal. In 1842 he was appointed FirBt Judge of the 
Courts of Wayne County, which office he held for over two years, 
and tlien resigned, lie finally retired fronri practice in April, iy«3, 
to take the field as a colonel of volunteer troops. He enjoyed a 
confetantly increasing practice while at the bar, and left it with the 
universal respect of his legal brethren. 

In November, 1843, he was united in marriage with ML^s Susan 
Augusta Ilart, daughter of the late Truman Hart, then of tlie inter- 
esting age of nineteen years, and a person of rare Ijeauty and 
accomplishments. 

For several years prior to 1848 his views on the subject of slavery 
had undergone considerable modification from those held by the 
masises of the Democratic party. Consequently, in that year he 
became active as a supporter of the Free-Soil Van Bureii 
platform, as adopted at Buffalo. He subsequently became identi- 
fied with the Republican party, and worked earnestly for the 
election of Abraham Lincoln. 

On the breaking out of the civil war in 1861, he immediately took 
an active part on the side of the government. In July; 1802, he 
became a member of a committee to take charge of the raising of 
troops in Monroe County. The One Hundred and Eighth Eegi- 
ment was duly raised and equipped, but it was found difficult to 
obtain a person to take command of it. One day, in a fit of 
desperation at this condition of matters, he decided that, if no 
one else could be found willing to assume the responsibility, un- 
fitted as he regarded himself for such a position, he would take 
it. To his astonishment, the committee at once recommended 
him to Governor Morgan for the colonelcy, and on the 28th July 
he received notice of hLs appointment. 

It will be remembered that this was at one of the most critical 

periods of the war, and General Palmer, who had studied closely 

the varying aspects of the contest, saw at a glance the great peril 

of the country and tlie urgent necessity of decided, vigorous, and 

805 



]»ivn\pt action in jvsponso tv< Pivsiilciit T.iniMln's oall of ,lulv 1st 
for pliU'inj; uumv tnH'ps iniinodititolv in tlu> tioKl. 

MoCK'llan's tiiio army hud boon iloniornli/.tHi — Ivioliiuond, which 
was in its ijrasp, aiul Li>e's arniv at its nioivy, thrwujich cowaixUco or 
incompetency ot' the conunandinit g»MH>raI, had boon lot'l nniuo- 
K>stod, and the way to our national capital opened to the Conleti- 
erate loiws. It was at tliis juiictun» and in this exi«<x>ncv that men 
ot' the quick pen^cption, dccidiil action, and patriotic impulses of 
Gciieral Valnier. spranij to the bivach and, under God, saved the 
nation. 

The measuiv of this man's ^wtriotism was givat indeed. The 
ecluvs of the srnns of Fort Sumter had sc!»n^>ely been heani when 
he throw his whole soul into the work of the contest. And now, 
though his as^\ and the situation of his fanjily and business, ottei-ed 
the greatest discv^ui-ageraent to such an undertaking, he determined 
to accept the apjH>intment which had Ihvu so unexpectedly con- 
fernnl upon him. He at once catue to the conclusion that he must 
accept or go to Canadsv, or some other seoJusion ; that l\e could 
not, in such an emergency, walk the strt^et* of Kochestcr, or rejxise, 
with any degiw of quiet conscience, under the ting of his country, 
deoJining to stand by it or go to its rescue, and to death, if neeii be, 
when so calUxi nix>n. 

His patriotic action did not pass unnoticed by his fellow-citizens 
of KvK'hester. A letter addressee! to bin), datinl Kochestcr, August 
14, ISO^, and now l>efore ns, is as follows : — 

" MT NSIGHBOS ASD SSTKIUIKIV FSIKXB : — 

" I desire to contribute soinethinK toward tout outfit for the puWio sorviw. Allow 
me to delVay the esj*nso of your sword, pistols, s,-»ddlo, »nd bridle. rie«se draw on 
i»e fbr the oest of these !>rtioles at your oonTeuiono^-. 

•• None but yo>ir intimate ft-iends can ftiUy appreciate the eiahtnl nll^»i^•cs that pwmpl 
you to exehani«> the quiet oomforts of homo and family for the privations and turmoils 
and danj!\-rs of war. The anarehy and ruin which threaten our country will be averted, 
if self-sacrificing pauiotism like yours i^rvades the people. If it divs not, we are un- 
worthy to enjoy the mild and beneficent government xtnder whik-h we h-sve lived in 
s«o»>rity and peace." 

Colonel P.ilmer at omn? assumoii command of the One Hundred 



oi.iVEu II. i'M,;.iy.i'.. - 

and EijjI.th Jlcgimc-nt, wliicJ, wa« the i^^^umd rei^irncntal or^aniza- 
tion in the State nnder the call of July 3, 1802. On the 19th of 
Auguftt, the regiment took it» departure, under order** for the m-M of 
war, by way of New York, nine hundre^J and eighty strong, offieerH 
and men. Jt^^aching Wai»hington on the 23d, it wa« ordr^r;.] into 
camp about geven mi!e» north of the Poto/na.;. Bpa^re will not 
allow m Uj trace all the nnmeroua movementa of tbi« regiment in 
the a/;tive campaign upon which it immf^Jiat^ly entcrcJ. HuHUm it 
U, say that it t^>ok a memorable part in General McCiellan'fj cam- 
paign in Marjland and Virginia, including the battle* rrf Sooth 
Mountain and Antietam, and in General BurrmuWn momm^nt 
upon Frri/lerickiiburg. O.lonel Palmer exhibit/.d not only remark- 
able efficiency in maintaining the drill of the regiment, but great 
heroism in the field. At Fre/Jerickaburg he c^.mmanded a hrigarJc, 
which wa» in the a/lvanr^ division. On the date of re^;/.iving hi»' 
fir»t order to leave camp, to take part in a movement againirt 
the enemy, he wrote the following noble words: "J feel that 
I am Btrictly in the line of a »ar;rrjd duty. Nothing but a (stern 
eensc of duty would ever have induw^J me U, lr«»ve the quiet 
and comforts of home, wife, and children, for the rough and 
tumble of camp life, and the hazards and turmoil of war ; and it in 
better for my children, and tho»e that may come after them, that 
the fx.nntry should be Havf^^], and our froAt ingtitutionii preserved 
and hande^l down V, pofsterity, than that my life should be spared. 
What are a few years of man's life c<^;mpared with the untold bless- 
ings that will follow generations U> c^.me, if, by the sacrifice, our 
beneficent government can be maintained ? " r>ater he writes : " We 
are now c^,n«tantly under arms. The universe is mj h&MmnUr. 
I retire by the light of the stars, and seldom c^>nd^*f;end to take off 
bo/^,t« or spurs ; generally bw^tkfast and dine in mj saddle, of 
r^.urse, on hard cracker, or nothing." Again : "Iff^el heartily sorry 
for the poor men. In our marcbc« many of them fall out, as we 
call it, but rfially fall down by the way-side from shr*r exhaustion, 
and die, i^^,r fellows, as bruize die. My hr^rt blw^js for them, but 
42 8f/7 



OI.IVKR U. PALMER. 

1 am as powerless as an iiitaiit to aid tliein. 1 niu but a cog in the 
great wheel of the army, and have to turn when the power is ap 
plied." From the battle-tield of Antietam, September 18, 1SG2, he 
writes: "The balls and shells Hew like hailstones all over, under, 
and aro\n>d nie. I thank. God on aecount of my dear wife, and on ae- 
(X>Hnt of my darling but helpless children, as I never thanked liim 
before, that I am to-day alive and sound, and I pray that His pnv 
tei'tion juay continue to shield mo. My trust is in Ilini, and I feel 
resigneil to whatever fate is in the future." On the 19th ho writes : 
"Wo lay upon the field until nine o'clock yesterday morning, with- 
out food, blankets, or shelter. I had no idea of the horrore of war 
till I find myself suddenly in the midst of them, and I am ready and 
willing, horrid as it is, if I can aid in any degree to end this ac- 
cui-sed rebellion, to take my chances, leaving results in the hands 
of an overruling Providence." Of the attack on the heights of 
Fredericksburg, he writes : " It was an advance to disaster and 
death. "We had to cross the plain about eighty rods in the face of 
a destructive, accurate, and deadly tire, and then we were brought 
up against a high stone wall, protected in front by an impassable 
canal, and against Siind-banks protected by insurmountable abatis 
that no infantry in the world could overcome, while from this wall 
and from these sand-banks were poureil down upon us torrents of 
gra|>e and canister, and lead t'rem the unerring ritles of the sharp- 
sluK^tei-s, and we could fire only by guess. It was too hot. One- 
third of my brigade was disabled in twenty minutes, and I was 
compelled to fall back. . . . The scene was frightful, but in- 
tensely exciting. New brigades of fresh troops were forming in 
lino and advancing, hoping to be more successful, but I knew they 
were doon\ed to disappointment and death. Broken and shattered 
companies, regiments, and brigades were falling back. Dead and 
wounded otfieers and men were being borne to the rear. Some in 
blankets, more on the shoulders of comrades. You would see one 
here with one arm, another there with one leg, trying to get back; 
some moaning, some swearing. Occasionally a poor fellow, trying 

80S 



OMVKR H. I'ALMKR. ^ 

to save tli« half not »liot away, would diHajipfiur in fragincntH hy a 
Bolid Hliot, or ami'Jwfc tlio Hitiol«! of an <;xi>lo'lt!(l hIioII." 

Ill healtli at length ohii^od Coloniil I'altri(;r Ut jwk to Ix; rrjiicved 
from his cotninarid. On tins Otli of ^far(;ll, IHO'J, Ikj took loavc <;f 
IiIh regiment, near Falmouth, in a jjatriolic and tou'iliing addrcKH. 
TtK cloning words were an folloWH ; — 

" fiohiUirn, I *IliI1 watch you witli intoniw inUinint, I itliall fwjl yoiir Kiifferlngi) and 
jroiir liardnliipn. I xhall rejoicw in your farno ami buccobb. Your glory wlU c)i«';r mo 
wliorcvcr I am ; hut your Htiumo would cruuli my licart. KfincmUjr tliat I own un 
intor«8t in thoKC onco Ijriglit and b'tautiCul, now wairr«d and talUirmi, hut Ml more 
beautiful, banncrti, wliieh i value above all price, 'J'lxjy bear record of your valor. 
The threCKCorc and ton HlarB made in lliem l>y rebel bullcti) at the battle of Antietam 
fonn a contttclUttion wortliy alrnoot of adoration, fitund by them. And when you 
return again to your peaceful home, bring them with you that I may again (see tliem, 
and unite with you in the appropriate action for their iaiiting prcKervatlon. 

" Soldiers, rnay Ood'K bleHuingB and fcvor follow you. Farewell," 

On the 22d of May, ISO, he wa« conimi»»ioncl sm Jiriga<licr- 
General by brevet, for faitliful and meritorioiiH service. It wat* a 
considerable time before he recovered his health. 

After hirt return to I^Kjlienter, he wan invitwl U) contribute hi» 
talents and energies tf> the management of the Western Union 
Telegrapli Company, in the important ofllce of treasurer, ile 
accepted the position, and lias since been identified with the 
Cf^rnpany. When the offices wei-c removed to New York, he 
also removed to that city, where he has becnne a permanent 
resident. The responsibility and duties of this ott'uM are very 
onerous, and during the sutnmer of 1870 he s^^ught relaxation 
in Europe. He enjoys and deserves a liands^nne salary. lie h 
also one of the directors of the Mutual Life Insuran(;e Company 
of New York. 

Although thorougJily a';quaintf;'J with political affairs and 
familiar with the current history of parties, lie has persistently de- 
clined to make politics a profession, or allow the baubhis of public 
offiati to interfere with or t^snipt him from the legitimate pursuit of 
his business. In fact while he appr'^;iatf« true statesmanship 
which UitidH V> secure the greatest good to the greatest number, 
80'J ' 



S OLIVER H. PALMER. 

ami to advance tlie best interests of our common countn-, he has a 
just contempt for mere partisan management. 

General Palmer is above the average height, erect and graceful. 
His head is large, being more long than round, with a prominent 
and handsome brow. All the features are regular, and the expres- 
sion is cheerful and amiable. His eyes have a keen glance, while 
tliey are never anything but kindly. His mannei-s are polished and 
genial, and there are few men who possess more captivating quali- 
ties in social intercourse. In his nature and actions he is frank 
a>id exact to truth and justice in every particular. He has a heart 
in which consideration and sympathy for his fellow-men have no 
small share. Unswerving in his integrity, public-spirited, and 
zealous in every business interest, he is justly regarded as one of 
the nK>st valuable men of the day. 

It is worthy of thought that the positions of influence and trust 
to which General Palmer has attained have been reached from that 
humble log-house in the wilderness as a starting point. First, he 
sought knowledge, and he gained much even while he labored at 
the severe toil of the newly cleared farm. Then, filled with ambi- 
tion that made light of personal privations and defied all obstacles, 
he began his battle of life, which he has continued to its present 
st-vge of unqualified success and honor. 
SIO 



OYmGTOX BENEDICT. 

^T is written in that Book, "The love of money is the root 
- of all evil," but how often persons take from that tnie 
passage by quoting that "money is the root of all evil " 
Following the latter quotation, it makes one admit that it is wrong 
for a young man to be energetic and close in the pursuit of busi- 
ness. But when you think that not money in itself is hurtful but 
s.mply the love of it, you look at things from a different stand- 
pomt. Every one knows that to love money as some do, simply 
for the amount, is not for one's self or any one else. Then we must 
not blame young men for trying to gain a position both financial 
and social. In looking at our business men, we see Ovington 
Benedict prominent as a jeweler, a thoroughly honest Christian 
man One of those who do not love money from miserly principles 
but for the use it can be put to. ^ f ^ 

He was born in New York on the 27th of July, 1831 When of 
a suitable age he entered his father's store in Wall Street At this 
store he gained a practical knowledge of watches and watch- 
making. He began life with a good education and two hands to 
help himself with, and he has been able, n-ith God on his side to 
attain an enviable position among the business men of this city ' 

One might question if now there were such young Christian men 
^ those in these sad days. By constant and hard labor Mr 
Benedict, with his brothers, gradually gained both in position and 
notoriety. It took, of course, many years of steady work before 
they became known as time-keepers. But he ever looked to his 
Maker with gratitude, and ever sought Him in trouble, and his good 
Father sent him prosperity and peace. In the due course of time 
811 



2 V I N (^, T N R !■: N !•: P 1 C T . 

lie established anotlior iironiincnt and reliable store. One at No. 
091 Broadway, near Fourtli Street, to which he and Samuel Bene- 
dict, Jr., a brother, give their entire attention. 

The public gradual!}' came to repose so much confidence in 
them, that they gave them the keeping of the city time, and now 
tlie term " Benedict's Time," is one that is in every mouth from 
High Bridge to the Buttery. 

" Time and tide wait for no man," is an old time proverb, and 
nowhere is it more manifest than in this metropolis. The habit 
and custom of the business and commercial men here in New York 
City rely upon the minute, nay, even on the second, for their 
appointments, engagements, or other relations; hence it devolves 
upon some enterprising philanthropist to provide such means by 
which the public secure some reliable or truthfufhorologer. Mr. 
Benedict, who has become so renowned, has for a number of years, 
to the great convenience and benefit of the community, furnished 
the true meridian time, until every bank, railroad office, telegraph 
station, counting-house, hotel, government office, church, public 
edifice, and even private dwellings, all rely mainly on Benedict's 
time. In this way, Mr. Benedict and his brothers have become a 
necessary fixture, or rather a useful appendage, to this metropolis 
and the country at large. As horologers, they have within the past 
few yeai-s monopolized the business; scarcely any one thinks of 
l)urchasing a watch or time-piece without consulting Mr. Benedict. 
His make is now considered by far in advance of all other impor- 
tations or domestic watches. The nickel movement watches, self- 
winders, chronometers elegantly cased and made of eighteen carat 
gold, are tlie latest feature of scientific and mechanical ingenuity. 
These time-pieces are guaranteed for a number of years. The manu- 
facture of these movements is superintended by Mr. Benedict him- 
self, who exacts the most rigid finish and workmanship. Nickel, 
a metal of comparatively recent discovery, appears to be far more 
durable and less liable to oxidation, expansion, or contraction, than 
brass, or the other compound metals heretofore used for fine move- 
812 



OVINTiTON liENKDlCT. 3 

iiiL'iits, hciicu jri-OHter accuracy and less repairs fonii the great de- 
bideratum in possessing siicli a time-piece. 

Every one who has been in our great city biit for a few days, 
has noticed the great and wonderful uniformity of time. Indeed 
tliere is scarcely a city of its size anywhere which has such great 
uniformity in this respect, owing to Benedict's carefully kept time. 

In entering their store at 691 Broadway, your eye is immediately 
impressed with the neatness and beauty which it beholds on every 
side. Tlie furniture is of black walnut, relieved by gilt, which 
presents at once a neat and showy appearance. The goods kept 
for sale at this establisliment, some of wliich we have had the pleas- 
ure of examining, are well worthy the attention of all who desire to 
purchase. 

Mr. Benedict keeps nothing in the way of jewelry or silver ware 
which does not manifest the same sterling value which his time- 
pieces invariably show. A man of Mr. Benedict's style could not 
deal in showy or shoddy goods. His watches unifoi-mly confoi'm 
to the true time, and in all cases he warrants goods to give entire 
satisfaction. 

There is no establishment in the city of New York where so com- 
plete an assortment of watches and jewelry can be found, and at 
such reasonable rates. This also marks him as a man who desires 
to deal fairly and not to fill his pockets with money unless he feels 
that he has really and honestly earned it ; and that feeling many of 
our Kew York men have long since put in their pockets. It is a 
rarity to find a man who has, in New York, advanced in all 
things as successfully as he has, who has retained with it his 
boyish integrity and honesty, and it is every Christian man and 
woman's duty to deal with such a one when he can be found. 

Mr. Benedict has not confined himself strictly to business only, 
but has taken pains to become acquainted with nearly every one 
of our prominent literary stars. He is probably acquainted with 
more literary men than any other one man in our city. 

He has alno figured largely in publishing some time-table books, 

8i;j 



4 OVINGTON BKUKDICT. 

works of great usefulness. For several years he has superintended 
the publishing of a Time Table, which gives the only correct infor- 
mation concci-ning the departure of trains and steamboats both 
from this city and from every station in our land. It is so pub- 
lished as to be able to notify every change which occurs in any of 
the lines which center in this city. Indeed, in order to know the 
scope of this work one should get it and investigate it. It contains 
reliable information regarding the time that every steamboat and 
steam-ship leaves and arrives at both the principal cities and also 
the small places, however insignificant they may seem. It notices 
the connections how and where they must be made, fares and com- 
mutation rates, fire-alarm signals, closing and arrival of the mail, 
an almanac for the month aud a map of New York city. It is 
truly wonderful how so much can be condensed in so little space. 
Mr. Benedict is a man of few words but deep thoughts. He is 
a man of indomitable will, as he has demonstrated by his wonderful 
success in business. He is pre])ossessing in appearance, tall and 
Avell proportioned. He exhibits good perceptive faculties to the 
observer, who will readily class him as an enterprising business 
man. In habits he is strictly temperate, and in personal appearance 
and dress, plain and unassuming. His private life, in all respects, 
is unquestionable; and few men have a greater power of winning 
and establishing strong personal friendship. His opinions are 
listened to with respect, and his counsels sought. He is a man of 
large heart and warm sympathies. 
814 




/^^l-t>tc^^^^ ^^i^,^^^^ 




ARTHUR GILMAN. 

^ 'ETHUR GILMAIST was born in Newburyport, Mass., on 
the 5th of JSTovember, 1821. He was fitted for college at 
the old Dummer Academy, Byfield, Mass., and entered 
Trinity College, Hartford, in 1839. On account of a seri- 
ous difficulty of the eyes, he was unable to finish the usual collegiate 
course, and left after having remained two years. On recovering 
from this ailment he commenced the study of the law, but inclina- 
tion soon led him to architecture and the arts, and thenceforth he 
devoted himself to architecture. Having a ready command of lan- 
guage, aud writing a clear and scholarly style, he prepared an arti- 
cle on " American Architecture," which was published in the Nm'th 
American Review, for April, 1844, which excited considerable at- 
tention ; was copied in Europe, and translated into several foi-eign 
languages. This article procured for Mr. Giiman the appointment 
to deliver a course of twelve lectures on that subject before the 
Lowell Institute, of Boston, in which strong criticism was expressed 
of the pseudo-Greek architecture of that day, and a return to the 
Renaissance and Gothic styles, urged and predicted, which has 
wrouglit out such marked improvement in our architectm-e. Sub- 
sequently Mr. Giiman studied the subject technically and thoroughly, 
and commenced practice in Boston, in 1845. His first large work 
was the design of Fernhill, the country residence of the late William 
P. Winchester, Esq., in Watertown, near Boston, a mansion of the 
first-class, which still retains its pre-eminence among the many fine 
residences in the neighborhood of Boston, for stately elegance, com- 
bined with a high degree of domestic comfort. Afterwards, and in 
rapid succession, he designed the fine Gothic church in Bath, Me. ; 
817 



ARTHUR OILMAN. 



the Shoo and liOather Boak-iv' Uank, in Kilbv Street, Biiston ; St. 
raul's Church, Dcdhani, Mass., and a groat number of private vil- 
las, for which the suburbs of Boston are so justly noted. 

In the spring of the voar 1853, Mr. Gilniau sailed for Europe on 
a tour of i>rofessional observation, and passed sometime in study and 
travel abroad, ivturning homo late in the autumn of the following 
year. AVhile in London his letters secured for him the favorable 
acquaintance of Sir Charles Cockoi-ell, at that time the President of 
the British Institute of Architects ; of Pivfessor Donaldson, Foreign 
Secretary of the sjimo body, ami especially of Sir Charles Barry, the 
distinguished aivhitcct of tlie House of Parliament, of whose works, 
in the Italian stylo in particular, the young traveler had long been a 
close student, as well as an ardent admii-or. To the friendship and 
l>atronago of Sir Charles Barry Mr. Oilman was indebted for nuvny 
opportunities of seeing all that was best and most valuable in the 
architectural attractions of the great metropolis ; admission upon 
the intivduction of Sir Charles being freely granted to the club- 
houses, palaces, government otHces and other tine buiKliiigs not gen- 
erally accessible to strangers. 

In a tour of study devoted to tlie great Englisli catiiedrals, Mr. 
Oilman visited, sketched and studied the magniticent structures of 
Canterbury, Salisbury, Winchester and Ciiichoster, in the South, and 
subsequently in a northern journey spent sometime at the et]ually 
imposing piles at Ely, Lincoln, Peterboivugh, York and Durham. 
In this way he acquired a knowledge of and a fondness for the pure 
English Gothic stylos, and is uudistigurod by any motlern additions 
foreign admixtui-es, which ho has fully retained to the present time. 
In France the cathedrals of Rouen, Chai-ti-es, Amiens, Boauvais, 
Rheims and Paris, were successively visited, their peculiarities min- 
utely noted, and a stock of drawings, photographs and other illus- 
trations of those glorious ixMuains of the Middle Ages was accumu- 
lated which must ever remain a source of the highest pleasui-o and 
instruction to the collector. Nor wei-e the literary opportunities of 
such a tour, other than those more strictlv professional, altosxother 
818 



ne{<lef.-ted. Upon tlie infrodiiction of Mr, Tluuikrjr.'iy, witli whom lio 
hiul previouBly bac-cmm ar^rjiuxintcd in Ainonr;fi, Mr, (iilimui wjih fre- 
quently Cat tbf! f/arrick anri i-'ir-lrling Clubn an^J u\mv!hi:r,:), in the 
liahit of meeting,' most of the younger literary men of the time, and 
often had the opportunity of li,,tcnin(( to th<; familiar talk of C'harle« 
•lieade and Tom 'J'aylor, of Mark Lemon, of Albert Kmith, then in 
the heigiit of liiH Mmt Jilmui mwm^m,, and generally the h\,h\u%\mn 
and rucfmtc.ur of the (y.terie, and of the gift<;d and modest artiut t^ 
PvMch, John U-ech, whowj gra^ful peneil in Iiix own jieerjljar line, 
will probably never be n»r\,iii^^\, -^nd witli whom during the r(y 
rriainder of hi« htay in Jy.ndon Mr. (.ilman wa« in habit** of ch/rx; 
intimacy. 

With attractionH of ho high an order oj^^n to liim, it i« no wonder 
that our arcbite^.-t Hhouid Jook baek Uj hiw Kngli>,h vigit with tlie 
highest pleasure ; nor that the Uii],rtimumh wiiieb it n.ade uj^.n him 
hhouid \Mi •dinouii the rnr^t deep and krti/ig of hi» life, 

Mr. Gilwjan alw devoted birnw-lf t/, urfri„ff a plan, df>igiied and 
laid out by himwjif, for filling up and improving the " i'jni:k JJay" 
territory, then lying wa<ite a^JjW^nt U, iWnUm Ommoti, and wa« 
engage/l mainly in tliat enterpri«e, by nfHMih and j>en, for two'yeaw, 
before the Legislature and elsewhere. In lHrj7, he ha^J the sati^fa/;- 
tion of seeing his views, which at fir»t ha/1 U^-n <-/,nM<:r<-A vlaUm- 
ary, carrier] out by the State of Massachtiwjlt*, from which that an- 
cient commonwealth has alrea^Iy reali/xj^J w^veral millions of dollars, 
with more Uj cdxiu:, and a new arjd elegant quarter a^idfyj to the 
city. Commonwealth Avenue, which owes Jt« width and extent al- 
most entirely U, Mr. Oilman's pirsi^tcnt efforts, has alrea/Jy Uu-jrmn 
one of the finest stre/^-tg in the world, and caj/able of indefinite ex- 
tension. 

Entering mV, f;^>-partner«hip with Mr, liryant, of I'^^Um, Mr. r>jl- 
mari designerj the Arlington Ktrw^t Church (formerly the liev. Dr. 
Channing's;, the Ea«teni Railroad Station, the Xew City Hall Cone 
of tlie finest e/L'fices for civic purposes in the United Stat«j;, t}»e 
Horticultural S-xJety's Hall, the new State House, at O.nird 

8iy 



N. n., besides about seventy of the tinest new mansions of the new 
torritoiy addoiJ to Boston, which liis own h\bors had assisted so nia 
terially to call into existence. 

In the antunin of 1865, Mr. Oilman removed to New York, where 
liis tii-st work was to design the magniticent hotel intended to he 
huilt by Mr. Hiram Cranston, at FitVy-ninth Street and Fit>li Ave- 
nue, opposite tlie main entrance to Central Park. Mr. Cranston, 
however, entered into other engagements, and this fine design, wliich 
would have added so much to the attractions of New York, lias not 
been carried into execution. 

In ISO 7, Mr. Gilman was engiiged by the Commissionei-s of the 
Capitol at Albany to prepare a design for that prominent structure. 
That design, made in connection with Thomas Fidler, Esq., late 
architect of the Parliament Houses, at Ottawa, Ca., was duly ajv 
proved by the Commissionere and the Governor, in December, 1867. 
Diflei-ences of opinion subsequently arising among the Commission- 
ei-s, and the matter appearing to be surrounded with much dilheulty, 
ilr. Gilman signified his desire to \vithdraw, and, returning to New 
York, immediately engaged in the competition then about to take 
jilace, for the Equitable Life Assurance Society's Building, at the 
corner of Broadway and Cedai- street. The plans and desigus pre- 
sented by Messrs. Gilman and Kendall, accompanied by a thorough 
and exliaustive report from the pen of the latter, were fortunate 
enough to receive the unanimous vote of the Directors, and the 
building was commenced on the 1st of May, 1S6S, and completed 
on the 1st of May, 1S70. Pei-haps no edifice in the city of New 
York has ever commanded more general approbation, than this 
solid and imposing structure. Built entirely of the white granite 
from Concord. N. H., it presents the appearance of a solid and time- 
dctying construction, — while at the same time rich and ornamental 
in all its parts. Dominating, by its height and extent the whole of 
the lower portion of the city, it forms a most striking and attractive 
feature in any general view of the great metropolis. 

^fr. Gilnuan is now fully engaged in the active practice of iiis 
^8-20 



profosj^i.,11 in tlio city of New York. In liirn flic |,ul,li(- l.avo an 
architect, trained in the he«t fichools of Kui'ope, yet kecfjin^' fully 
ahead of all tlioHe numberlcHH modem JmprovementH wliicli no diB- 
tinguiBh tfie best achievementu of our American builders. It is not 
too much to expect that many other deHignB from IiIh fafjilo pencil 
will yet arise to embellish the avenues and squares of the New York 
of the future. 

821. 



CHARLES W. LOWELL. 

%EW more strikin- examples of hrilliant kucccks, achieved 
^ ^'y Pe'-so"=il effort alone, are to be found in this country 
^5 *''''^" *^"^* pi-esented in the brief but busy, thougli somewhat 
varied, career of the present popular Postmaster of New 
Orleans, whose name heads our present sketch. In him the genius 
of our American industry, that industry that courts obstacles for 
the ])leasure and excitement of overcoming them ; tliat industry 
founded on truth and honor, and which nothing can daunt or dismay, 
finds its most splendid embodiment. A young man yet, and proba- 
bly far from reaching the zenith of his power and influence, his life 
record is replete with instructive lessons to American youth, whose 
breasts are stirred with a like lofty ambition to make themselves a 
power and an influence in their day or generation, and leave behind 
them footprints on the sands of time. 

Charles W. Lowell was bom in Farmington, Franklin Co., Maine, 
November 20, 1834, and the only son of Hon. Philip S. Lowell. His 
father at the time owned and worked a small iarm, conjoining with 
the same carpentry work. "When he was two and a half years old, 
his father moved to Abbott, a small town in Piscata^iuis County' 
and continued his residence there for nine years, when he moved to 
Foxcroft. Young LoweU's opportunities of early education were 
circumscribed within the limited curriculum of the common schools, 
until his father went to the latter place to live, when he became a. 
student in the town Academy. He pursued his studies at the 
Academy for three years, mastering all the mathematics, for which 
he took a special aptitude, acquired in the college course, and mak- 
ing considerable progress in Latin. Unfortunately at this time his 
823 



a H A K L K S W . I. O W K I. L . 

father wiis oblijiiHl to gii Ivu-k upon tho farm again at Abbott, This 
not only took young Charles frvnu his stutlies, in the prosecution of 
which he was so deeply interestevl, and had already made such 
marked and umisual prv^gross, but ho Wi\s compelled to aid his father 
in working on the tann, and at the carjXMitry trade, to which the 
latter gave a considerable sharo of his time. But with these dull 
employments he had to unite others ; in tlict, turn his hand to any- 
thing that would serve to incn^ase the f'uuily income. We find him 
working at a thrashing machine, and then teaching school. Mat- 
tel's ran on in this way for alxmt thnv years, when he determincil 
to ivsume his studies, prejviratory to entering college'. This wivj no 
small work, and took time. lie went to sduwl ; but at the summer 
vacations workeii at harvesting tor farmers ; at other times helping 
his t'ather to build bridges and dams, and during the winter months 
teaching school. At length he accomplished his great desire, and 
entered Bowdoin College. lie entereif the class of 1S55, and soon 
ranked among the foremost in scholai-ship. Just before the close 
of the sophomore yeju- he was sununoned home, on account of his 
mother's illness, and did not return to college. Succeeding his 
mothers death, he entered upon the study of law, in the otfiee of 
Hon. Chas. P. Chandler, of Foxcroft. Mr. Chandler dying shortly 
afterwanls, he continued his law studies in the otttce of Hon. A. M. 
Robinson, of Dover, Me. Mcjuitime he was obliges! to teach school 
at interv.nls, and do other kinds of work, to obtain money to }v»y 
his expenses. In the fiUl of IS.^S, the pi>sition of associate princi- 
pal of the Fo.Kcroft Academy wjvs otiered him, which he accepted. 
Uc remained here one year, and then resigned. In January, ISOO, 
at\er undei^ung a rigid examination by three of the ablest lawyei-s 
of Eastern, Me., he was admitted to the bar. 

Though pursuing his lepil studies by piece-meal and under dis- 
advantages few have to deal with, there are not many who enter up- 
on the practice of law with a mind more matnreci by lianl study and 
with a more thorough knowleilge of the fundamental principles of 
law. lie commenced practice in Norway, Mo., as i»!»rtnor witli Hon. 
S24 



It I. JC H W . 



Mark IT. Duriricll, tli(;ti Ktatc Huporintondont of KcIiooIh, and jinjcciit 
rii(!i;il)or of (JoiigroKM iVorn MinncHOtii. Unlike many novifiaUs law- 
yci-H, Iio (Ji<i not liavo to wait long Cor Ih'h firHl, cmo, Tli'in ]in\i\)t;ufA 
to bo an important one, and afc onerj eijtabliHlicd lu» nspiitation im u 
Hound iiiwyer and ciofiiiont pleader. Tlio Huit WAH brought U) loHfc 
tbc rcHj/onKibilitioK of towim and countioH to privaUi owners nt real 
CHtate for dumagOH reHulting in building culverts acro»H roadw U) car- 
ry water falling ou tlie upper hide of the rr<a<lH and U) the low<;r, and 
inundating the land below. It wan fiercely contfiHtcI and bef<^re reach- 
ing the final deciwion, waH carried by an appeal to the higher c^jurtH. 
8ome of the oldoHt and ablest lawyers of the .State warn arrayed in 
opposition to our newly Hedged lawyer, but he gaincJ the eane, not- 
witluitaiiding, and it waw a triumjdi that at once gave him c^nspicuoun 
pre-eminen<* at the liar, l^;maining here about a year, during 
whicli time he married M.m Mary K«tli<;r Chandler, daught^ir of the 
firht namwl gentleman, in who^e office he aoiittncttcMd t/t htudy bin 
profewiifui, he removed Ui l''oxcroft at the earnent (vJicitation of 
Uon, .lohn II. Itice, who ha/1 ju;it h'jon elected U) C'ongre>>H, where 
tlie two anUinA into a law partnership under the firm name of Iiic<} 
«fe Lowell. The firm enjoycl an <ixti:ithiv(: and lucrative {irafAuM. 
Such wa» the eonfidenwi in hiH legal ability, tliat Gov. Waxhburne 
shortly appointed him Trial Justice — a position h/j filled with great 
honor and marked fidelity, Tbiij wa» the first your of the war. 
llis feelings were strongly &r()\mA against the nmnUnnta of our nur 
tional unity, aiid all bis j>atriotiiim erjlist*;'] on the side of the Union. 
He ma/le ¥>\X'AM\im rallying men t/) defend tlwj usuitad emblem of our 
liational UhnrtinH. Ila^l it not \}ti':ii for the c-arnest prot^^tatiorw of his 
law partner and wife's family, \it} would lutve goae into l\u} army at 
once. It was an impulw've j/atriotism, however, that continued Uj 
burn in hi» hf^art with such fiery arthjr, tliat no 'dinfmitt of opjx^ition 
c<juld afterwards prevent him from placing hinwjlf in tliC foremost 
ranks of our national defenders. 

In the Fall of 1801, lie was uletiU-A to the Maine I/^iiilature, and 
by the largest majority any man ever rcMvA from tliat dit^trict. 
82.0 



4 CHARLES W. LOWELL. 

He was one of the youngest nienibei-s, but speedily rose to tlie front 
rank of influence. In all matters of legislation pertaining directly 
or indirectly to the prosecution of the war, ho w.is conspicuously 
earnest and eloquent in urging the war's continuance till respect for 
the national flag and obedience to the national government were 
restored. 

In January, 1S(>3, his wife died. No possible entreaty could now 
keep him from joining the army of our Union defendere. A month 
later he accepted a captaincy in the brigade being raised by Brig. 
Gen. Ullman in New York city. 

The ofliccrs of the brigade were appointed by President Lincoln 
to go South and recruit colored troops. Early in April the expedi- 
tion sailed from New York in the steamer Matanzas, landed in New 
Orleans April 19th, where, after remaining a few days, they proceed- 
ed to Baton Rouge, at which place Col. Hamlin's regiment to which 
Capt. Lowell had been assigned, wsvs. left to recruit its men. The 
men recruited for the regiment had not yet been mustered in nor 
arms fmniished them, when it was ordered to Port Hudson to take 
part in the siege. The regiment remained here doing hard and gal- 
lant service in the trenches, and showing itself brave in the battle, 
till the surrender of that fortress, at1;er which time the regiment was 
filled up and mustered into the LTnited States service as the Eighth 
Regiment Corjfs cTA/riqne. As part of the garrison at Port Hud- 
son, the regiment continued to remain there till the spring of 1864. 

During this time Capt. Lowell rendered most important and efli 
cient service as Judge Advocate of courts-martial and military com 
missions. In the spring of 1864, the regiment was ordered upon the 
Red River campaign, but this order was changed however, and it 
was sent to guard the Mississippi river, with headquarters at Bonnet 
Carre, L-x. Capt. Lowell, in command of four companies, was sta- 
tioned at Gaiennie's Landing, twenty miles above the regiment. 
This was their out-post. They had frequent skirmishes with the 
guerrillas, and were very successful in capturing smugglers and 
their goods. 



In July of the same year, lie was ordered to report to Colonel 
Hanks, tlien in charge of the Freedmen at New Orleans, and having 
done so, was assigned to act as the latter's attorney, in which capacity 
he had frequent occasion to appear in their behalf in all the city 
courts. The position was not altogether a pleasant one, but its du- 
ties were discharged with unflinching zeal and faithfulness, to a ckss 
whose rights in the courts were then only slightly recognized. Early 
in 1865 the regiment— its military designation having now been 
changed to that of the Eightieth U. S. Colored Infantry— was ordered 
to Camp Parapet, near New Orieans, but immediately upon its ar 
rival there, Capt. Lowell was detailed to superintend the draft at 
New Orieans ordered by General Canby. This duty closed in May, 
when he was detailed as Judge Advocate of the military commission 
to try the acting Lieut., Governor of Louisiana upon a charge of per- 
jury in connection with the draft. The accused had for his counsel 
Colonel A. P. Field, the ablest criminal lawyer then practising at 
the New Orieans bar. All the technical points and objections pos- 
sible were raised and pressed m his defense, but as ingeniously met 
and resisted by the young Judge Advocate. The war ended before 
the result of the commission was made known, and the ban of se- 
cresy has consequently never been removed from the court. Mean- 
time, while this trial was in progi-ess, Capt. Lowell's regiment was 
sent to Shreveport, Louisiana, with the troops around -there, to re- 
ceive Kirby Smith's surrender. After the adjournment of the mil- 
itary commission, Capt. Lowell was sent by General Canby to nortb- 
westem Louisiana and eastern Texas, to superintend the sale of 
buildings and other property surrendered by the Ordinance Departs 
ment. This duty discharged, he rejoined his regiment then garris- 
oning Alexandria, La. He was immediately appointed Provost 
Marslial of the post, and was in a few days promoted to Major of 
the regiment, and brevetted Lieut.-Colonel and Colonel He did 
not remain at Alexandria long, but was speedily ordered to report 
in New Orieans for duty, as assistant to the Provost Marshal-Gener- 
al and Judge Advocate-General on General Cauby's staff. On 
827 



C> CHARLES W . L O W K L L . 

August 21st, 18G5, he was appointed Provost Marshal-General on 
General Canby's staff. This was just subsequent to the surrender, 
and when the returning rebels were making efforts to recover their 
homes and other property. 

To Col. Lowell, Gen. Canby assigned the duty of ascertaining 
the status during the war of such claimant. It was both a difficult 
and deUcate duty ; but on its discharge the Colonel exnnced a sin- 
gular clearness of judgment — a strict impartiaUty, and at the same 
time faithfulness to his trust, that elicited the highest I'espect of 
Gen. Canby, as well as the entire confidence of every body with 
whom he was brought in contact. In March, 1866, Gen. Canby re- 
heved Col. Lowell, and appointed him judge of the Provost Court 
of New Orleans. He filled this position until the following June, 
when the court was abohshed, after which he took command of his 
regiment, still garrisoning the Post of Shreveport, La. On the 
first of March, 1867, the regiment was mustered out of service, and 
with it closed the miUtary service of Col. Lowell. It need only be 
said further, that during these fours years of his military fife, he 
was not oft' duty a single day, except in the winter of 1866, when 
on a short leave of absence. 

His military career ended. Col. Lowell went north and spent the 
succeeding summer in Maine and Kansas. In the fall of that year 
he was appointed by Mr. Browning, Secretary of the Interior, one 
of the commissioners to superintend the sale of the Pottawattamie 
Indian reserve in Kansas ; but the necessary surveys not being com- 
i:>leted that Fall, he returned south, and established himself at his 
old quarters, at Shreveport, Louisiana. Shortly after his arrival he 
was appointed by Gen. Hancock Chairman of the Board of Kegis- 
tratiou for Caddo Parish. In April, 1868, he was elected from that 
parish to the House of Eepresentatives of the fii-st General Assem- 
bly of Louisiana, after reconstruction. He was also selected as one 
of the delegates to the Eepublican National Convention at Chicago, 
in May, 1868, which nominated General Grant for the Presidency, 
and was one of the secretaries of that Convention. Upon tlie or- 
828 



ganization of the new Government of Louisiana, in 1868, he 
was elected speaker of the House of Representatives, and in het 
same session was appointed by tlie General Assembly one of the 
comnaissioners to superintend the revision of the statutes and codes 
of the State, and was made chairman of the commission. Upon 
the inauguration of Gen. Grant, having removed to ISTew Orleans, 
he was appointed Postmaster of that city. Havang accepted this 
position, he proposed to resign his seat iu the General Assembly, 
but his friends so earnestly protested, that he consented to remain a 
member upon the floor, but resigned the speakership. His career 
in the State Assembly is too recent and well known to need ex- 
tended recapitulation. He became a leader of his party upon all 
political questions in the House, and with the most effective and 
urgent eloquence and persistency strenuously opposed all schemes 
for subsidising private corporations by the state. Upon charges be- 
ing made by the Governor against the State Auditor, Ool. Lowell 
was one of the committee to investigate the same. He made the 
report of the committee, accompanying it with resolutions of im- 
peachment, and, leading the discussion in the House, carried the 
resolutions ahnost unanimously. He was appointeJ by the House 
to conduct the triaL Opposed to him were the ablest counsel to 
be had. The trial was a long and exciting one ; Col. Lowell made 
the closing argument, and so convincing and irrefragable were its 
conclusion, that he obtained a judgment of conviction by the unan- 
imous vote of the senate, and thus rid the state of a bad man and 
faithless oiScer. 

Colonel Lowell is a practitioner in the Louisiana Courts. He is 
also extensively engaged in dealing in real estate. He possesses a 
valuable turpentine orchard on Mobile Bay, near the city, and be- 
side this, a plantation above New Orleans, on the Mississippi Eiver. 
For the last two years he has been a member of the Eepublican State 
Committee, and is acknowledged as one of the most prominent and 
influential political speakers of the State. Li 1868 and 1870, he 
canvassed the State upon the stump for the Eepublican party. He 
829 



has been frequently solicited to rim for Congress, and also to be the 
candidate for nomination for governor ; but lias steadfastly declined 
all such proftei-s of political preferment, thinking it better that older 
men, or those longer resident of the State, should be selected for 
those high offices. His father is still living, and resides in California 
where he is largely engaged in agricultural pursuits. He has several 
married sisters in San Francisco. He has one daughter, an only 
child, who is living with her aunt, the wife of Hon. E. J. Hale, of 
Foxcroft, Maine. 

Starting life poor, solf-edueatcd and self -reliant — few men as the 
above record shows, have been more eminently successful. No man 
can say that he ever did otherwise than he agreed. Honesty, indus- 
try, and attendance to business have been his strongly predominant 
characteristics. In his private life, he is the most amiable and com- 
panionable of men. Few men are endowed with larger liberality. 
He has always been a constant attendant of the Presbyterian Clnirch, 
although not a member. 

On the lOth of October, 1871, he was nuirrie.l to the highly ac- 
complished Miss Sallie W. Huff, second daughter of Mr. A. E. llufi", 
of Salem, Roanoke County, Ya. In the vigor of manhood, a long 
career of increasing influence, and higher honors and more brilliant 
jchievcmeiits still wait to crown the glorious record of his active? 
most useful and unselfisii life. 

830 



^^^ 






^^^^^^^^^..^^-^^^ 



CORN K 1.1. us A. WOII'J'IONDYKM 

^^'^IIOMAS CAliLYLK witl, tliat i.uculim- but expressive 
phraseology of his, oveirflowing with spirit and toi'8(;riesK, 
sets forth as his chief hero, he wlio with CHrth-iiiadc iinple- 
meuts laboriously conquers the earth and makes her iiuui's. 
In plainer language he makes the farmer his hero. "We would on- 
large the scope of hei'oism, and set down that man as a her(j who 
whatever liis sphere of life, manfully assails the duty before him, 
and who makes this duty the golden opportunity to develop the 
powers in him, and with their development grasps at broader en- 
deavors, and through the medium of more enlarged duties, leaves 
an imjierishable impress upon liis times. Some men, Micawber- 
like, arc always waiting for something to turn up. Hucli men never 
accomplish anythiisg. They will not atteni]»t the duty before them 
because it is not up to the high measurement they place <jn their 
own abilities or standard of their ambition. Making the best of his 
opportunities, and with this combining patience, persevei'arice and 
unyielding integrity, are the chief characteristics of the subject of 
this sketch. Duty and work have been with him synonyms, and 
the two have brought him wealth, position and power. 

Cornelius A. Wortendyke was born at Godwinsville, Bergen 
county, New Jersey, March 9, 1820. What happens to few men 
in this country of stirring change and family revolutions occasioned 
in the eager chase f(jr wealth and broader fields of labor, he at 
present resides on the place where he was born. And this is not all. 
He lives where his father and grandfather lived before him — a cir- 
cumstance not unusual to chronicle of men living under the mon- 
archical governments of the old world, where the estates are entailed 
831 



2 C O E N E L I U S A . \V O B T K X 11 Y K E . 

and remain in the same family, descending from son to sou tbrongh 
generations, but of very rare record under our Eepublican form of 
government. His ancestors were of the old Knickerbocker stock, 
having emigrated to this counlry and settled in New York as early 
as 1711. Cornelius "Wortendyke, tlie grandfiither of the subject of 
our sketch, moved to New Jei-sey, where ho bought the farm that 
ever since has remained in the possession of the family, and where' 
as already stated, now resides his more illustrious, but not more 
worthy, grandson. The "Wortendyke family, indeed, including 
Abraham Wortendyke, the father of the subject of our sketch, is, 
however, among the oldest of the New Jersey families, and have 
always been held in high esteem for industry, frugality and upright- 
ness. Their honorable career is a record of which any man may 
justly be proud. 

Young Cornelius was sent to school at the early age of three 
years, and remained at school uninterruptedly until he was fourteen. 
This amount of schooling seems to have satistied him, and it is quite 
reasonable to suppose that at this age and under the system of com- 
mon school education as then existing in New Jersey, that his schol- 
astic acquirements could not have been very extensive. An am- 
bition to do something on his own account seized him to try, even 
tlms early unaided, the battle of life. Having made known his 
wishes to his parents and obtained their consent, he soon obtained 
a position as clei'k in a clothing-house in New York. He re- 
mained here for five yeai-s, discharging his duties with singular 
fidelity, and obtaining the entire confidence of his employer, as well 
as the respect and esteem of all with whom he was brouglit in con 
tact. Meantime he availed himself of all liis leisure time to im- 
prove his mind in study and reading, thus making up for the defici 
ency occasioned by his early withdrawal from school. He sedulously 
shunned those paths and ways that in a great city lead so many 
young pei-sons to ruin, and was a faithful attendant at evening 
schools, and his vacations were employed in teaching school in the 
countrv in the vicinity of his father's residence. 
832 



Not desiring to coiitiiuic in New York for ii Idm^^ci- ])f;rio(l, and 
liis tliougiits continually riuminj^, as tliey had for a hjiig time, on 
itianufacturing, a biiBincHS in which his father was ongaj^od, and in 
which lie had had a great degi'ce of cx[)erienco prcviouH to going to 
New York, he determined to give hiB attention wholly to manufac- 
turing. The IcBsons lie had already received in Holf-reliance were 
of great service to him. Indeed, at the age of nineteen, hin mind 
was more matured than are most at the age of twenty-five. lie 
gave undivided attention to his business. In 1852 he obtained a 
patent for making a continuous wick for tallow and sterine candles 
— an article of not only most ingenious construction, but whose util- 
ity became at once recognized, and speedily obtained for it most 
extended reputation, penetrating to every city and town llnoughout 
the country, besides portions of South America and Ihe more civil- 
ized regions of the old world. Not satisfied with this, he obtained 
five years later another jiatent for another impnjvement embodying 
principles and results of still greater utility. Tie was eminently 
prosperous in his business — a result, in his case, the legitimate re- 
sult of hard, unceasing labor, and its conduct upon principles of the 
strictest probity. For several years his works have been run day 
and night through the busy season, and during all this time he lias 
given them his jjcrsonal supervision often extending through tlie 
greater part of the night. It is worthy of mention, as typical of his 
character, and showing his liberality that, in 18.57, the year so mem- 
orable for the commercial disaster overwhelming so many in irre- 
trievable ruin, that he enabled many of his customers to successfully 
weather the financial storm by his liberal extensions. Meantime he 
has been continually enlarging his works, till now they are among 
the most extensive of the kind in this country and easier in their 
management, unsui-passed neatness and the highest sfafe of diHcii>- 
line. 

Something more than a merely successful business man has been 
Mr. Wortendyke. He has shown himself pre-eminently a man of 
progress, or what means the same thing less generally expressed, a 
833 



I. I us A. WOKTi: N PVKTC. 



■puWii'-tsjMritOil luiui. Ho Ims al wins boon prominont iu ]M'oinotinn; 
tlio public gooil, and particularly in niattora portaininj; to tho intoi"- 
ost8 of his county and fstato. Ho proourod tho oriEjinal charter of 
tho Now Jeivoy Wostorn liailroad Company, and in IStu was elect- 
ed its President, and soon ntlor coninieneed tliowork of eonstr noting 
the rojid. In ISTO this ivad was consolidated with tho Now Jersey, 
Hudson and Holawaro, and tho Sussex Valley Railroad. Ho wa^ 
elootod President of tlio consolidated company under the name oi' 
tho Now Jersey Midland Riilway Company — a position ho still 
holds. Under his efficient supervision and management, ouo-half 
of the whole road is now in successful operation, and the whole lino 
fron\ New York to Fnionville will bo iu working order by tho first 
of Jamniry, 1S72. This was a work that at lii-st seemed almost im- 
possible to accomplish, but iu less than six months it Avill bo com- 
pleted, making a continuous line with the Now York and Oswego 
^fidland road from the lakes to tho city of Now York. In building 
this n.iad, Mr. "Wortendyko will have erected for liimself a monu- 
ment as enduring as this country — monumrnfiim ceivjit'rtmniiui. 

Mr. Wortendyko has never been a prominent politiciau. llo has 
always been identified, however, with tho Democratic party, and 
several times has boon selected as dologato to Congressional and gub- 
ernatorial conventions. Though often solicited to accept political of- 
fice, he has always steadfastly declined. Tlie ivcord of his life is that 
of a straightforwai-d business man aud public benefactor. In business 
ho has been imwoutedly successful — a success wholly owing to his 
gri\<»t self reliance, dose attention to business, indomitable poi-sevoi-- 
anco and dotermimition always to succeed. His liberality is wn- 
boundod. He takes pride in being foremost iu every local iniprove- 
mont. His place, the old homestead, is elegantly fitted nji, aud tho 
grounds about it ailornod with rare and oxquisito taste. Still in tho 
enjoyment of vigorous health, l\o bids fair to onjoy for many yoai-s 
to come the splendid fruit* of his toil and energ}% and with thorn 
disjxiuso broadcast the glorious sunshine of uui-estrained and unsclf- 
i>b liborMlitv. 

834 




ta£* Irf f. E lUU w lUlJa i 



C. -l.C^J^,. 



GAEDNER QUINOT COLTOK 



. ARDNEPt QUmCT COLTON, son of Deacon Walter 
and Thankful (Cobb) Colton — youngest of a family of 
twelve cliildren, was bom in the town of Georgia, State 
of Vermont, February 7, 1814. 

At the age of sixteen he went to St. Albans, and served an appren- 
ticesbip of five years at chair-making with the late Azel Church. 
In 1835 he came to New York and worked as a journeyman chair- 
maker. Having a literary turn, he began to write for the press. 

In 1842-4 he studied medicine in the office of Dr. Willard 
Parker, and attended the required two courses of lectures in the 
Crosby Street College of Physicians and Surgeons. 

At the close of his studies he commenced lecturing upon Chem- 
istry and Natural Philosophy. 

On the 10th of December, 1S44, he gave a lecture in Hartford, 
Conn., and administered the nitrous oxide or laughing-gas for the 
amusement of the audience. An event occurred at this lecture and 
exhibition which led to the discovery of anmsthesia — the most im- 
portant and valuable discovery of the present century, not except- 
ing the magnetic telegraph. 

A young man, while under the influence of the gas, ran against 
some settees and bruised himself badly, but afterward declared 
that he experienced no pain while the effects of the gas lasted. 

Dr. Horace Wells, a dentist of Hartford, who was present, noticed 
the circumstauce, and asked Dr. Colton why a tooth could not be 
drawn without pain by administering the gas. This led to a conver- 
sation between Drs. Wells and Colton, in which Colton stated that at 
an exhibition which he gave a few weeks previous at Bridgeport, 
835 



2 GARDNER QUINOY COLTON. 

OouE., a yonng man, .n striking another, broke a bone in one of 
his hands, but said he did not know it, till the effects of the gas 
had passed off. This determined Dr. Wells to try the experiment 
on himself, in having a tooth drawn. The next day (Utli of De- 
cember, 1844), Dr. Col ton took a bag of the gas to the oiBce of Dr. 
Wells. Dr. Eiggs, a neighboring dentist was called in, and Dr. 
Colton administered the gas to Wells, when Dr. Eiggs extracted a 
large molar tooth. On recovering his consciousness Dr. Wells ex- 
claimed, " I did not feel it so much as the prich of a pin .'" This 
was the first surgical operation ever performed with a true anaes- 
thetic. This was about two years before the introduction of ether 
and chloroform. 

Dr. Colton instructed Dr. Wells to make the laughing-gas, and 
then continued his lecturing tour. 

Dr. Wells introduced the gas into his practice with entire success, 
but during the following four years or till his death, at New York 
on January 24, 1848, he was unable to convince the medical and 
dental professions of the value of the discovery. Ether came into 
use in the latter part of 1846, and as this could be procured at any 
drag store, and without any apparatus or chemical knowledge, the 
real value of the gas as an anaesthetic was not tested by the pro- 
fessions. When Dr. Wells died, all thought of the gas passed out 
of the public mind. It was condemned as an anaesthetic before it 
was ever tested. 

Dr. Colton continued his lectures and exhibitions in various 
parts of the country, often giving an account of the experiments of 
Dr. Wells, but was not able to induce any dentist to incur the ex- 
pense of the apparatus in order to try the gas. 

In 1849 he was induced to go to California, upon the advice of 
his brother, Eev. Walter Colton, who, for three years previous, had 
tilled the office of civil governor of that Terntory. He failed in 
his efforts to dig his fortune from the earth, but while in San 
Francisco, Governor Eiley (then acting governor) appointed him to 
the office of justice of the peace for that city. When the new 
836 



GARDNER QUINCYCOLTON. 3 

State constitution came into power, his office expired, — lie had 
been appointed under the old Spanish or Mexican laws, — and 
he returned to New York. Here he became for a time the New 
York correspondent of the Boston Transcript. 

Having failed in several enterprises to realize his expectations, in 
1861 he resumed his lectures and exhibitions of the nitrous oxide 
gas. In June, 1863, observing how unpopular and dangerous the 
use of ether and chloroform had become, he determined to revive 
the use of nitrous oxide gas as an anaesthetic, and if possible 
demonstrate its value to the dental profession, — though with no 
thought, however, of permanently using it himself, as he was not a 
dentist. He induced Dr. J. H. Smith, a dentist of JSTew Haven, 
Conn., to extract teeth for one week, while he would administer 
the gas for the purpose. They commenced, and meeting with great 
success, continued the business for three weeks, during which time 
they extracted over three tliousand teeth ! Such a triumphant 
result determined Dr. Colton to go to New York and establish an 
institution which should be devoted exclusively to the extraction 
of teeth with the gas. For this purpose he associated himself with 
three distinguished dentists under the name of the " Colton Dental 
Association^ Here the great battle had to be fought. The dental 
and medical professions both declared that the gas had been tried 
long years before, and proved a failure; that it was nothing more 
or less than a humbug ! Every species of abuse and ridicule was 
heaped iipon the pretentious Colton and his associates. Money 
came in very slowly, and month after month passed before the 
receipts exceeded the expenses. At length the associates became 
discouraged and withdrew from the concern, saying they could not 
leave a prosperous business to bolster up what appeared to be con- 
demned by the public. Dr. Colton, with that determined faith, 
hope, and perseverance which seem to be characteristics in his 
nature, stuck to the business, hiring a dentist to do the extracting, 
and being himself the "' Colton Dental Association." He expended 
eight thousand dollars the tirst year in advertising, advocating, and 
837 



i GARDNER QUINCT COLTON. 

and defending the invention. His business began to increase, every 
patient going away a friend and advertiser, though it was a full 
year before any profits were realized. It was a year of darkness, 
doubt, and terrible anxiety. But the second year the skies began to 
brighten, and Colton was enabled to hire a first-class dentist to do 
the extracting; and the third year a second assistant. For the past 
four years his receipts have averaged thirty thousand dollars jyer 
year! His operators, in devoting their entire time to extracting, 
became wonderfully expert in the business, and nearly all the lead- 
ing dentists of the city recommend their patients to the Colton 
Dental Association. The gas has almost entirely superseded the 
use of chloroform and ether. Dr. Colton has given it to over forty- 
seven thousand patients, and their names and residences are all 
recorded and numbered on a scroll in his oflice. That it is a safe 
anaesthetic is proved by the fact that not an accident has occurred 
in all the above cases. 

For short surgical operations the gas is almost as great a boon to 
humanity as though no other anaesthetic had been discovered. Dr. 
Colton does not claim to have discovered anaesthesia, or the anaes- 
thetic powers of the nitrous oxide gas. That honor he concedes to 
Dr. Horace Wells. But he claims to have been the occasion of its dis- 
covery, and to have revived and practically demonstrated its value, 
after it had been abandoned and forgotten for twenty-two years, or 
since the death of Wells. The very fact that it had been aban- 
doned increased the difficulties which had to be overcome in itp 
re-introduction. Dr. Colton is now reaping, in an ample income, 
the rewards of the patient perseverance with which he struggled 
against such odds in its introduction. 

Early in the spring of 1867, Dr. Colton went to Europe to attend 
the great Paris Exposition and exhibit his apparatus, and demon- 
strate the value of the gas to the scientific world. While at the 
Exposition, he accepted a proposition from Dr. Thomas W, Evans, 
the emperor's dentist, to remain with him a year, and give him 
thorough practical instruction in its manufacture and administra- 
838 



GARDNER QUINCY COLTON. g 

tion. After this lie traveled, with his family, for six months 
through France, Italy, and Switzerland, keeping a journal of 
"Sights and Scenes," which was published in the form of letters 
in the St. Albans Messenger. After his return to Paris, havino- 
demonstrated the powers of the gas to the savans of that city he 
went to London, and, in connection with Mr. Charles James Fox 
a distinguished dentist of that city (who had commenced usinc. the 
gas), assisted in developing and establishing its value there. After 
receiving d.stinguislied honors from the dental and medical profes- 
sions, particularly in London, he returned to New York, bavin., 
been abroad a year and. a half. '"^ 

Dr. Colton is now on his second tour of travels in Europe, enjoy- 
ing the fruits of his well-earned fortune. He affords a good illus- 
tration of how much can be accomplished by integrity, intellio-ence 
perseverance, and pluck. He was never aided to the amounl of a 
dollar to start in life. His various enterprises and efforts, and final 
success show that one should not be discouraged because of a 
tailure in this or that undertaking. Try again. 

A large majority of the men who have made their mark in the 
world began their career in humble life, and had their powers 
developed by contending against, and overcoming, what appeared 
at the time to be insurmountable obstacles. 

In concluding this sketch of the life and character of Dr Colton 
we should not fail to allude to one remarkable trait in his charac- 
ter. We refer to his benevolence. Although the amount of his 
means, until of late years, has only allowed him to gratify this trait 
of character to a limited extent, yet his purse has always been open 
to the needs of his friends and relatives. If at any time he had fifty 
dollars in his pocket, he was rich enough to part with half of it to 
any relative in more need than himself. His friends say that he 
will be longest remembered, not for his scientific attainments or 
accumulation of money, but for his warm-hearted generosity and 
kindness to friends. 
These repeated gifts, with the large amounts which he has more 
839 



Q GARDNER QUINCT COLTON. 

recently given, would, in the aggregate, amount to a small fortune. 
He regarded these gifts as " bread cast upon the waters," and he 
believes he is now realizing the promise that he shall '' find it after 
many days." 

840 




DAVID J. MITCHELL. 

'AVID J. MITCHELL was bom in De Kuyter, Madi- 
son County, N. T., on the 2'rth day of January, 1827. His 
parents were Quakers, and lie inherited from them a clear 
intellect, a vigorous constitution and an untiring energy. 
He passed his boyhood in the village of his birth, with no educa- 
tional advantages except those furnished by the district school and 
the De Kuyter Academy, then an institution of excellent reputa- 
tion. He displayed at an early age a marked inclination for the 
legal profession, and before his majority he had attained consider- 
able reputation in his native town from conducting trials of cases 
before justices of the peace. Among his school fellows was Henry 
C. Goodwin, a boy about a year his senior, of a quiet and retiring 
nature, but of rare promise. Between the two a warm and lasting 
friendship sprang up, and while yet in school they formed the design 
of studying law and practicing their profession togetlier. Mr. Good- 
win entered the office of Hon. James W. Nye, then a practicing 
lawyer, at Hamilton, in the county of Madison, and Mr. Mitchell 
entered the office of A. V. Bentley, Esq., at De Euyter. 

In January, 1848, the firm of Goodwin & Mitchell, Attorneys 
and Counsellors at Law, commenced business at Hamilton. The 
office was opened and the sign displayed before Mr. Mitchell had 
attained his majority, but he was admitted to practice at the first 
term of the court held afterwards, and the young firm rose rapidly 
in public favor and theirs soon became the leading office of that 
county. Mr. Goodwin was twice elected to Congress, and died in 
1860. 

In 1853 Mr. Mitchell was elected District-Attornev of the county 
841 



DAVID J. XIITCUELL. 



of Madison. He was nominated by the Whigs and was the only 
one of his party who was elected in the county that fall. In some 
election districts not a vote was cast against him — all voting in his 
favor without regard to party. Tliis is the only political office ever 
],eld by him, or for which he was ever put in nomination. He ac- 
cepted that because it was in the line of his profession and a step- 
ping-stone to a larger practice. He discharged the duties of his 
office with singular ability and success. He never advised an in- 
dictment unless he believed the accused was guilty, and it was a rare 
occurrence that a verdict of acquittal was rendered. During this 
time he conducted, unaided by counsel, the trial of George W. 
Zecher for the murder of John Buck. Zecher was a German of 
considerable culture, and managed wliile in jail to enlist the sympa- 
thies of Hon. Gerrit Smith, the eminent philanthropist and accom- 
plished orator, and Mr. Smith, believing him to be innocent of the 
crime, volunteered to defend him. On the first trial the jury disa- 
greed, on the second trial he was acquitted. Those who had the 
good fortune to listen to this trial, remember it as a remarkable 
display of forensic ability on the part of the young District- Attor- 
ney as well as on the part of Mr. Smith, and the acquittal was gene- 
rally attributed to the great personal influence and high chai-acter 
of the distinguished gentleman who conducted the defence. The 
evidence on the part of the people was wholly circumstantial, and 
the fact that Mr. Smith believed the prisoner innocent and had for 
that reason volunteered gratuitously to defend him, had great weight 
with the jury. 

In the fall of 1859, Mr. Mitchell formed a partnership with the 
Hon. Daniel Pratt, of Syracuse, whose term of office as Judge of the 
Supreme Court was about to expire, and on the 1st of January, 
1860, Mr. Mitchell removed to Syracuse. The connection thus 
formed still continues under the firm name of Pratt, Mitchell & 
Brown, and has proved a profitable and pleasant one for the 



Mr. Mitchell occupies a front rank among the lawyers of Central 
842 



D A.VID J. MITCHELL. 



'^ew York, and in some departments of Ms profession he has no su- 
perior, if indeed Lis equal, among them. 

Quick in his perceptions, strong in his convictions, and almost in- 
tuitive in his conclusions, he wastes but little time upon legal tech- 
nicalities, but seizes upon the salient points of his case and presses 
them with great clearness and force. He possesses the confidence of 
the judges and is always listened to with marked attention. Though 
often appearing before the court sitting in bane, and with success, 
it is at nhiprius that he has achieved his most signal victories. 

He possesses a physique of remarkable power and endurance, so 
that even in the longest and hardest contested causes he never evinces 
weariness or lack of interest. This combined with a sanguine and 
joyous temperament enables him to so conduct himself in the court- 
room that the jury are involuntarily predisposed in his favor from 
the outset of a trial. In other words he possesses, in a marked de- 
gree, what is commonly kuown as personal magnetism. He con- 
ducts a trial with boldness and apparent consciousness of strength ; 
nevertheless, he is cautious, and it is seldom that a verdict se- 
cured by him is set aside for error on appeal. 

He has an unusual and almost instinctive faculty for draw- 
ing out facts clearly from witnesses, and understands thoroughly 
the art of cross-examination. A hostile witness rarely escapes 
uninjured, or a false witness without exposure. While conducting 
a cross-examination with apparent boldness, he is yet cautious in 
its use and rarely makes a mistake. The case is generally won be- 
fore ho addresses the jury, but if not, his sagacity enables him to dis- 
cover the fact and he brings all his energies to the task of forcing 
conviction upon them. This he usually does in a brief and ingenious 
speech delivered with a candor and earnestness which leaves no 
doubt of his sincerity on the minds of the jury. He understands the 
power and use of ridicule, and the art of enhsting the sympathies 
of his hearers. His great common sense and knowledge of men 
enable him to array and present facts with a skill, shrewdness and 
effect rarelv equalled. 

843 



/ 



( DAVID J. MITCHELL. 

We doubt if any lawyer liiis won a larger proportion of the cases 
he has tried, than has Mr. Mitchell. 

He has been engaged in the defence of twelve men charged with 
murder, only one of whom was convicted, and he was not executed, but 
■was sentenced to imprisonment for life. Among this number was 
the trial of General Cole at Albany for shooting L. Harris Hiscock, 
member of Assembly from Onondaga county. Mr. Mitchell was 
associated with the late James T. Brady and other eminent counsel 
for the defence, and the prosecution was conducted by District 
Attorney Henry Smith, assisted by able counsel. The cause was 
twice tried, and ui>on the conclusion of the second trial General 
Cole was acquitted. 

Mr. Mitchell was counsel for the select committee appointed by 
the Senate of the State of New York, in 1867, to investigate the 
management of the canals, of which Senator Stanford was chairman. 
He was also counsel with Hon. Smith M. Weed, on behalf of the 
State in the trial of Robert C. Dorn, Canal Commissioner, upon 
articles of impeachment presented by the House of Assembly. Mr. 
Mitchell has tried a large number of cases for the New York Cen- 
tral Raili'oad Company, as one of its attorneys, and his general prac 
tice has been very large. 

One of his more recent cases has excited great public interest, and 
his management of it has displayed some of his most prominent pro- 
fessional characteristics. 

About the first of January, 1870, a fire occurred in Syracuse, 
which has since been popularly known as the " Burnett fire." The 
property destroyed was insured in some fifteen diflierent companies, 
and the total amount of insurance was about §120,000. The com- 
panies suspected the fire was not an honest one, and retained Mr. 
Mitchell to investigate the matter. When suits were brought against 
the companies by assignees of the policies, he interposed the bold 
defense that the insured parties kindled the fire on purpose to obtain 
the insurance money. Public attention was thoroughly aroused, 
and after a severe and exciting contest judgment was rendered in 
844 



D A V I n J . M I T C II E L L . 5 

favor of the coiiipaiiics in all of tlic actions. So coinidetelj did li-j 
succeed in exposing the crime and fraud wliich Iiad been ])racticcd 
against the defendants, that the popular verdict sustained the judg- 
ment of the Court, and approved the course the companies had 
taken in resisting payment of the policies. 

His extensive legal practice has left iiim but little time to engage 
in matters outside of his profession. In politics he was formerly a 
Whig, and now a Eepublican with conservative tendencies. Though 
not desiring office he is active and influential in politics, and has 
been the means of procuring political preferment for many of his 
friends. 

He was an ardent supporter of the war, and by his influence 
and eloquence aided largely in organizing and filling several 
regiments for the service. At the close of the war he was invited 
to deliver an oration at Syi-acuse on July 4, 18C.5, which invitation 
he complied with. The oration was flatteringly received by the 
large concourse of people present. 

He is a loyal and self-sacrificing friend, a genial companion, and 
a generous, sympathetic, active and much esteemed citizen. 

A lawyer, however great his ability, who confines himself to the 
practice of his profession in a small city cannot acquire a wide- 
spread popular reputation. His triumphs are witnessed by but few ; 
he has no Metropolitan press to publish his achievements through- 
out the country, and not many persons have an interest in the re- 
sults of his contests. Mr. Mitchell is still a comparatively young 
man. Should he ever be tempted to stray outside of his profession- 
al fields and enter the political arena, he would gather additional 
laurels. He possesses a hatred of fraud, corruption, and peculation 
in office, that in these days of degenerate politics could not fail to 
make him a power in behalf of pure government and a favorite with 
the people. 

845 



56 



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.-t^-^- 



GOVEKNOli BO WEN. 



^|PHE subject of this sketch is pre-eminently a man of marked 
C^ abilities in the age we live in. He is young in years— only 
thirty-five— but has already served in all the departments 
of State Government. 

In 18.56, and before he had attained his majority, he was elected to, 
and served one term in the Legislature of the State of Iowa, repre^ 
senting the people among whom he was born and educated. Iq 
18.59 he emigrated to Kansas, and in 1862 went to the front as 
Colonel of the 13th Infantry of that State, and bore a gallant and 
conspicuous part in the great battle of " Prairie Grove," Arkansas, 
and other minor engagements, and at the close of the war held the 
rank of Brigadier General of Volunteers. 

After the war was over he remained in Arkansas, and was elected 
in 1867 a delegate to the constitutional convention under the recon- 
struction acts of Congress, and at the organization of that convention 
was made its president, soon after which he was elected Judge of the 
Supreme Court, and served in that capacity for three years. After 
resigning his office, he was, in April, 1871, appointed Governor of the 
Territory of Idaho, which position he now holds. There is probably 
no man in the West of his age who possesses more of the elements 
ofsuccess and progress. Failure is a word not to be found in his 
vocabulary, and whether in the field, at the bar, on the Ijench, or 
in the halls of legislation, he impresses all with whom he comes in 
contact that he is one of the master-spirits of the times. 
847 



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